
J 



^ 



>ja 



MEMOIRS 

OF 

SIR ROBERT CARY; 

AND 

FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 




MEMOIRS 



OF 



ROBERT CARY, 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 



WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. 



AND 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA ; 

BEING 

A HISTORY 

OF 

QUEEN ELIZABETH'S FAVOURITES. 

BY 

SIR ROBERT NAUNTON. 



WITH EXPLANATORY ANNOTATIONS. 



EDINBURGH : 

PRINTED BY JAMES BALLANTYNE AND CO. 

TOR ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO. EDINBURGH, 

AND JOHN MURRAY, LONDON. 

1808. 










ADVERTISEMENT. 



The Memoirs of Sir Robert Cary were first 
published from the original MS., by the Earl of Corke 
and Orrery. They contain an interesting account of 
some important passages in Elizabeth's reign, and throw 
peculiar light upon the personal character of the Queen. 
The original edition having now become very scarce, it 
is presumed that a new impression will be acceptable 
to the public. Several additions have been made to the 
Earl of Corke's explanatory notes, particularly to such 
as refer to Border matters. These additions are distin- 
guished by the letter E. 

As a suitable companion to Cary's Memoirs, the 
Fragmema Regalia, a source from which our his- 
torians have drawn the most authentic account of the 
court of the virgin Queen, have also been reprinted. 
The author, Sir Robert Naunton, lived in the element 
of a court, and had experienced all its fluctuations. 
His characters of statesmen and warriors are drawn 
with such spirit, as leaves us only to regret their brevi- 



VI 

ty, and the obscurity in which he sometimes thinks it 
prudent to involve them. To lessen this inconvenience, 
a few explanatory notes have been added. 

Memoirs are the materials, and often the touch- 
stone, of history ; and even where they descend to inci- 
dents beneath her notice, they aid the studies of the 
antiquary and the moral philosopher. While, there- 
fore, it is to be regretted, that the reserved temper 
of our nation has generally deterred our soldiers and 
statesmen from recording their own story, an attempt 
to preserve, explain/ or render more generally accessi- 
ble the works which we possess of this nature, seems to 
have some claim upon public favour. 



CONTENTS, 



Page. 

Memoirs of Sir Robert Cary 1 — 162 

Appendix. — Letter Sir Robert Cary to Lord 

Hunsdon 163 

Letter Lord Hunsdon to Lord Burghley 165 

FltAGMENTA REGALIA. 

Queen Elizabeth J71 

Leicester , 200 

Sussex 208 

Lord Burleigh 21 1 

Sir Philip Sidney 220 

Sir Francis Walsingham 223 

Willoughby 228 

Sir Nicholas Bacon 230 

Lord Norris 234 

Knowls 235 

Sir John Perrot 240 

Sir Christopher Hatton ,, 248 

Lord Effingham ,. 250 

Sir John Packington , 254 

Lord Hunsdon ...., 255 

Sir Walter Raleigh 257 



V1U CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Sir Foulk Greville ,. M 265 

Lord Essex ., 267 

Lord Buckhurst , 277 

Lord Mountjoy 281 

Sir Robert Cecill 288 

Sir Francis Vere 295 

Lord Worcester 298 



PREFACE. 



An honourable author, * who in a just 
piece of criticism, has exhibited so spirited 
a manner of writing, that he has given wit 
even to a dictionary, and vivacity to a ca- 
talogue of names, and has placed our royal 
and noble English writers in a more learn- 
ed and eminent light than they have ever 
appeared before, having mentioned the 
Earl of Monmouth's Memoirs as a manu- 
script fit to be made public ; in concur- 
rence with his judgment, and from a desire 
to exhibit a new picture of Queen Eliza- 



* Horatio Walpole, youngest son of Sir Robert Wal- 
pole. Knight of the Garter, afterwards Earl of Orford. 

a 



X PREFACE. 

beth and King James I., the following Me- 
moirs are sent into the world, with such 
explanatory notes to the obscure and re- 
markable passages, as may possibly render 
those passages more intelligible and effi- 
cacious than they would otherwise have 
been. 

Most, if not all, writers seem to imagine, 
that futurity must be as well acquainted 
as they themselves are, with the times, cus- 
toms, and manners, of which they write ; 
and in points that, although apparently mi- 
nute, are really material, they give them- 
selves so little trouble, that many of their 
works, for want of proper exactness and at- 
tention, fall under the dreaded curse either 
of obsoleteness or oblivion. For example, 
when a noble house is extinct, the title is 
frequently given away to some distant fa- 
mily, no ways related to the former; this 
title is still carried on in history, without 
inserting the change of the name ; which 
trifling circumstance, to mention no other, 
often creates difficulties and confusion. A 



PREFACE. XI 

single explanatory word in the margin 
would obviate the evil. 

If we have cause, as we undoubted- 
ly have, to lament the darkness through 
which we are obliged to pervade in the 
Greek and Roman story, how much more 
have we to regret the want of light in the 
annals of our own nation ? History wants 
every assistance, be it ever so small, that 
can be afforded to it. Our posterity in- 
deed will have an advantage which our an- 
cestors wanted, by the constant unwearied 
publication of a set of papers, despicable 
in themselves, but very useful in their con- 
sequences. I would be understood to mean, 
the magazines, chronicles, registers, reviews, 
and every diffusive catalogue of that kind. 
These periodical productions, mixed as they 
are with abuse, nonsense, and gallimatias 
of every sort, will have the honour to be 
the corner-stones of those historical edifices 
which may be built hereafter ; purely be- 
cause they are at present the surest reposi- 
tories of dates and names. 



Xll PREFACE. 

The Earl of Monmouth is extremely de- 
fective in his dates. In his account of the 
death of Queen Elizabeth, and his own 
immediate journey into Scotland, he gives 
us barely the daj-s of the week, without 
mentioning either the month or year ; and 
after the accession of King James, he gives 
us no dates of any kind, unless once or 
twice from his own age, having first omit- 
ted to tell us the year in which he was 
born. 

That sera is to be guessed at ; and I 
know no properer clue to direct us than 
by ascertaining the period of the famous 
wild Buckingham-journey undertaken by 
the Prince of Wales into Spain. His Royal 
Highness set out from Theobalds, Februa- 
ry 17th, 1623 ; the Earl of Monmouth was 
sent after him in a month's time, and re- 
called in two or three months more; he 
says he was then near sixty-three years of 
age, so that the time of his birth must ei- 
ther be 1559, or J 560, 



PREFACE. Xlll 

He had three children, two sons and a 
daughter. His eldest son, Henry, Lord 
Leppington, was married in his father's life- 
time to Lady Martha Cranfield, the eldest 
daughter of Lionel, Earl of Middlesex, 
Lord Treasurer, and elder sister of Lady 
Frances Cranfield, who married the Earl 
of Dorset, * and was great-grandmother to 
the author of this preface. 

The second son, Thomas, died, I believe, 
unmarried ; at least neither of the sons left 
male issue. -f- Lord Leppington had two 
sons, who died before him. J 



# The witty Earl of Dorset, distinguished at the gay 
court of Charles II., and honoured as the steady protec- 
tor of Dryden. The Earl of Corke and Orrery did not 
resemble his ancestor so much in his talents, as in his 
disposition towards literature. E. 

f Thomas Cary left two daughters ; Elizabeth, who 
married John Mordaunt, Lord Avalon, second son of 
the first Earl of Peterborough ; and Philadelphia, who 
married Sir Henry Littleton, and died at Tunbridge, in 
1665. E. 

J Lord Leppington succeeded his father in the Earl- 
dom of Monmouth, which became extinct on his death 
without issue-male. Mary, his daughter, (and called by 



XIV PREFACE. 

We know in whom and in what manner 
the male line of the daughter ended. Lady 
Philadelphia married the son and heir of 
Lord Wharton, and was great great grand- 
mother of the late extraordinary and ec- 
centric Duke of that title. 

The Memoirs themselves are character- 
istics sufficient of their author. They are 
true records of facts, which are either not 
mentioned, or are misrepresented by other 
historians. They are written in an unaf- 
fected, simple, intelligent style. Veracity 
is their only ornament ; but it is an orna- 
ment far beyond all others in historical 
anecdotes. They begin about the year 1577, 
when Don John of Austria came into the 
Low Countries ; Mr Robert Cary was, at 
that time, only seventeen years old. Few 
political observations could be made by so 
young a man : and although he had an op- 
portunity to be personally introduced to 



Collins his co-heir,) was the second wife of William, 
third Earl of Denbigh. E. 



PREFACE. XV 

two eminent princes, Don John of Austria, 
and Francis, Duke of Anjou, he only men- 
tions their names, and shews his juvenile 
thoughts to be more turned to tilts and 
tournaments, than to politics and affairs of 
state. 

When, afterwards, Mr Cary became at- 
tached to the Earl of Essex, and followed 
his Lordship into France, we see something 
of the soldierly character of that Earl, but 
much more of the partial inclinations which 
Queen Elizabeth entertained for so distin- 
guished a favourite. I have put such notes 
upon those particular passages, as leave the 
less room to speak of them here. 

The Queen was intuitively a sagacious 
Princess ; and if she had some foibles, they 
neither interrupted the interest of her own 
country, nor broke in upon those measures 
which she so steadily maintained for the 
good of Europe in general. She had a 
wonderful method of keeping up her dig- 
nity both at home and abroad. At home 
she threatened particular persons, and they 



XVI PREFACE. 

felt her anger ; abroad she threatened king- 
doms, and they felt her power. Sir Ro- 
bert Cary,* whose courage and personal 
resolution appear indisputable, trembles 
when he approaches her : he almost trem- 
bles when he thinks of her. He had the 
honour to be her relation ; his father was 
her cousin-german. She created him-f- 
Lord Hunsdon, in the first year of her 
reign; but she wisely declined the least 
mention of affinity : such a condescension 
must seemingly have debased her in her 
throne. During her whole reign, she took 
as little remembrance as possible either of 
her father or her mother : a retrospect of 
that kind must have been shocking, when 
the innocent wife was murdered, and the 
tyrannical husband was her murderer. 

It is certain that Queen Elizabeth could 
not bear the thoughts of a successor. The 
speeches made for her on her death-bed are 



f¥ He was knjghted in the year 1591. 
•f* That is, Sir Robert Cary's father. 



PREFACE. XV11 

all forged. Echard, Rapin, and a long 
string of historians, make her say faintly, 
(so faintly indeed that it could not possibly 
be heard,) " I will that a king succeed me, 
" and who should that be but my nearest 
" kinsman the King of Scots ?" A different 
account of this matter will be found in the 
following Memoirs. She was speechless, 
and almost expiring, when the chief coun- 
sellors of state were called into her bed- 
chamber. As soon as they were perfectly 
convinced that she could not utter an arti- 
culate word, and scarce could hear or under- 
stand one, they named the King of Scots 
to her, a liberty they dared not to have 
taken if she had been able to speak. She 
put her hand to her head, which was pro- 
bably at that time in agonizing pain. The 
Lords, who interpreted her signs just as 
they pleased, were immediately convinced, 
that the motion of her hand to her head, 
was a declaration of James VI. as her suc- 
cessor. What was this but the unanimous 



XV111 PREFACE. 

interpretations of persons who were adoring 
the rising sun ? 

The Queen dead, Sir Robert Cary, with 
equal art and diligence, hastened to Scot- 
land, before any other messenger could let 
King James know, that the crown of Eng- 
land was ready to be placed upon his head. 
The lords, and the other members of the 
council, were assembled, and were prepa- 
ring to draw up an elaborate address to 
their new sovereign, at the very time when 
Mr Cary set out for Edinburgh. He reach- 
ed Holyroodhouse on the third day after 
the death of Queen Elizabeth, notwith- 
standing a dangerous fall from his horse, 
which wounded and retarded him. 

The King received the news with steadi- 
ness and decency. He had been prepared 
for it by a letter, * which Sir Robert Cary 
mentions to have written to him as soon 
as Queen Elizabeth was visibly drawing to^ 



* See the Memoirs, p. 118, 



PREFACE. XIX 

wards her dissolution. The annalists of 
that period all think themselves under a 
necessity of representing so important a 
scene very minutely. Some of them, Os- 
borne in particular, says, the King was in 
amaze, and from thence gives room to his 
own natural bitterness. Rapin makes him 
lift up his eyes in a private ejaculation to 
heaven. Others describe him as they think 
fit. The real truth is exactly represented 
by Sir Robert Cary, from whose letter King 
James had received sufficient information 
to gather in his mind a composure, which, 
perhaps, he seldom shewed on any other 
occasion. 

In the mean time, the Lord Mayor and 
Privy Council at London were so exces- 
sively alarmed and irritated at Sir Robert 
Cary's watchfulness and expedition, that, 
in their first address to the King, they seem 
almost as eager to pour forth their indigna- 
tion against Sir Robert Cary, as to express 
their duty and allegiance to their new so- 
vereign. 



XX PREFACE. 

Their letter is dated thus : — " Written 
u in your Majesty's city of London, the 
" 24th of March, 1603, at ten hours of the 
" clock at night." They begin their ad- 
dress in a very exalted style : " Right high, 
" right excellent, and mighty Prince, and 
" our dread Sovereign Lord." Then, after 
most humble expressions of loyalty, and a 
perfect recognition of King James's right, 
they attack Sir Robert Cary, with all the 
marks of jealousy and resentment, in the 
following manner. 

" Farther, we have thought meet and ne- 
" cessary to advertise your Highness, that 
" Sir Robert Cary, this morning, departed 
" from hence towards your Majesty, not 
" only without the consent of us who were 
" present at Richmond at the time of our 
" late sovereign's decease, but also contra- 
" ry to such commandments as we had 
" power to lay upon him, and to all decen- 
" cy, good manners, and respect, which he 
" owed to so manjr persons of our degree ; 
" whereby it may be, that your Majesty 



PREFACE. XXI 

Ci hearing, by a bare report only, of the 
" death of the late Queen, and not of our 
" care and diligence in the establishment 
" of your Majesty's right here, in such 
" manner as is above specified, may con- 
" ceive doubts of other nature than (God 
" be thanked) there is cause you should ; 
" which we would have clearly prevented, 
" if he had borne so much respect to us, as 
" to have stayed for a common report of 
" our proceedings, and had not thought it 
" better to anticipate the same : for we 
" would have been loth that any person of 
" quality should have gone from hence, 
" who should not, with the report of her 
" death, have been able to declare the first 
" effect of our assured loyalties/' 

This letter is signed first by the Lord 
Mayor, and then by three-and-thirty lords 
and gentlemen, members of the council, 
amongst whom is George, Lord Hunsdon, 
elder brother of our Earl of Monmouth, 
who, perhaps, would not have signed so 
harsh and public a representation against 



XX11 PREFACE. 

his own brother, had not that brother made 
use of him as a means to escape from Rich- 
mond, when the palace gates were shut and 
strictly guarded, the Queen being just ex- 
pired. The consequences of that escape, 
and how little Sir Robert Cary remember- 
ed the positive manner in which Lord 
Hunsdon had answered for him, will be 
seen in the Memoirs. To say the truth, our 
author is not to be entirely excused in giv- 
ing up, and in a manner betraying his bail. 
If such an act admits of any attenuation, 
Sir Robert Cary may claim it from the pri- 
vate information given him by Lord Ban- 
bury, who was one of the council, and 
knew of a secret intention to send another 
person into Scotland, and to detain Sir Ro- 
bert Cary at least till that messenger was 
arrived at Edinburgh. The intrigues of the 
court in this important season appear vari- 
ous and bustling ; full of persons betraying 
and betrayed. Every courtier, no doubt, 
wished for wings; Sir Robert Cary wisely 
got upon a horse. 



PREFACE. XXU1 

All those who signed the letter, among 
whom Lord Banbury by the name of Wil- 
liam Knolles was one, must, from the te- 
nor of what they had given under their 
hands, remain the avowed enemies of our 
author. The weight and power of such a 
number of great men, had so irresistible an 
influence over King James, that, forgetting 
all his promises, he dismissed Sir Robert 
Cary from the post of gentleman of the 
bedchamber; — an act which is bitterly 
and justly complained of in these Me- 
moirs. * 

One circumstance in the foregoing letter 
must be taken notice of. Our author is 
there called Sir Robert Carjr, but when or 
upon what occasion he was knighted, does 



# Notwithstanding the sympathetic feeling of the no- 
ble biographer, those who consider that Cary's sole 
merit towards James consisted in a raven-like hovering 
around his dying kinswoman and benefactress, in or- 
der to gratify her successor with the earliest notice of 
her death, will not be greatly disposed to lament the 
disappointment of his ambition. E. 



XXIV PREFACE. 

not, I believe, appear from any printed his- 
tory, nor from any part of his Memoirs ex- 
cept one, where, speaking of the Earl of 
Essex, he says, " He (Lord Essex) made 
" all the haste he could to Dieppe. I met 
" him there. As soon as he saw me, he 
" drew his rapier, and came running to me, 
" and laid it on my shoulder/' 

It is evident, according to Camden, that 
Queen Elizabeth gave her generals a power 
of conferring knighthood upon whom they 
thought proper. * That author gives us 
more instances of it than one. The first, 
as I remember, is in the year 1570, when 
Thomas RatclifFe, Earl of Sussex, was sent, 
at the head of some forces, to quell a rebel- 
lion upon the borders of Scotland. " Sus- 



* Our author does not seem to have remembered, 
that the power of making knights was originally com- 
petent to every one, when he himself attained that or- 
der ; and it was only the difficulty of sustaining the dig- 
nity, which gradually limited the privilege of conferring 
it first to generals, and at length to sovereign princes 
exclusively. E. 

13 



PREFACE. XXV 



u 



sex/' says Mr Camden,* " being now 
" returned, knighted Edward Hastings, 
" Francis Russel, Valentine Brown, Wil- 
", liam Hilton, Robert Staple ton, Henry 
" Curwen, and Simon Musgrave, for their 
" valour ; and he himself afterwards, for 
" his approved wisdom and virtue, was ad- 
" mitted of the Queen's privy council/' 

Queen Elizabeth gave the same power 
of making knights to her admirals. Ac- 
cordingly, Camden -j- tells us, that, in the 
year 1588, after the third sea-fight with the 
Spanish armada, " The next day the lord- 
" admiral J knighted the Lord Thomas 
" Howard, the Lord Sheffield, Roger Town- 
" send, John Hawkins, and Martin Forbis- 
" ter, for their valour/' 

A third example is given by the same 



* See Camden's History of Queen Elizabeth, book ii. 
page 149* 

f See Idem, book iii. page 414. 

J Charles, Lord Howard of Effingham. 



XXVI PREFACE. 

author* of this extraordinary prerogative* 
vested in Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willough- 
by, general of Queen Elizabeth's forces in 
the Netherlands, at the time when the 
Prince of Parma *f was obliged, by the va- 
lour of the English, to break up the siege 
of Bergen-op-zome. 

The fourth instance is directly to the 
point in question, and fixes the exact sera 
(the year 1591) when Sir Robert Cary was 
made a knight. It is inserted by Mr 
Camden in these words. 

" That he (the Earl of Essex) might win 
" the love and affection of his army, and 
" heighten their courage, he knighted ma- 
" ny, not without the offence of many 



* See Camden's Queen Elizabeth, book iii. p. 420., 
anno 1588. 

f Alexander Farnese was one of the greatest generals 
in the sixteenth century ; — an sera productive of re- 
markable military men. He was made governor of the 
Low Countries in the year 1578. If the Spanish arma- 
da had been successful, he intended to have invaded 
England with those forces which he afterwards employ- 
ed against Bergen-op-zome. 

7 



PREFACE. XXV11 

" others, who had been dignified with that 
" honour before they came from home ; as 
" if he had too cheaply prostituted that ti- 
" tie, which had hitherto been of so glori- 
" ous esteem among the English, and which 
" the Queen had bestowed but very spa- 
" ringly, and that only upon men of good 
" note and spirit/' * 

By the quotations here drawn from 
Camden, it is plain that the royal prero- 
gative of knighting was, on some occasions, 
permitted and made over to the great offi- 
cers of state. Such a grant was, in all 
probability, limited and restrained. The 
Queen intended it only as a power to give 
immediate honours upon extraordinary oc- 
casions, in distant countries, and for signal 
acts of bravery and military conduct. Lord 
Essex, naturally rash and precipitate, often 
used this power inconsiderately. He re- 
warded services that were to be done ; the 



* See Camden's Queen Elizabeth, book iv. p. 449. 



XXV111 PREFACE. 

Queen rewarded services that were done : 
her words, her manner, her very looks were 
rewards. It is a just remark, made by our 
historians, that she denied a favour with 
more grace than her successor (we may 
add her two next successors) granted it. 
Camden's assertion of Queen Elizabeth's 
rare and wary disposal of knighthood, has 
drawn Mons. Rapin into an error. Speak- 
ing of her death he says, that there was 
then such a scarcity of knights, " Quil ne se 
" trouvoit plus assez de chevaliers dans lespro- 
" vinces pour etre deputez au parlement" * 
^ That there were not knights enough to 
" serve in parliament/' Tindal, to correct, 
or rather to outdo Mons. Rapin, translates 
the passage, " that scarce a county had 
" knights enough to make a jury." 

Lord Essex most certainly gave no of- 
fence by any honours which he bestowed 



* See L'Histoire d'Angleterre, par M. de Rapin 
Thoyras, Vol. VII. liv. 18. p. 6. 



PREFACE. XXIX 

on Sir Robert Cary, who, from the begin- 
ning to the end of his life, deserved all 
those honours which he received. He was 
early attached to that brave and unfortu- 
nate Earl ; he was his true friend, and 
faithful servant. The total silence which 
may be observed in his Memoirs of his no- 
ble patron's catastrophe, proceeds, it may 
be presumed, from duty towards the Queen, 
whose inflexible severity as he could not 
applaud, he would not presume to cen- 
sure. 

No prince could come with greater ad- 
vantages than King James I. to the throne. 
Protestants and Papists allowed his right : 
the former from a just system of politics, 
and a true spirit of patriotism, because he 
was the nearest Protestant heir to the 
crown ; the latter, because, having often de- 
clared the right of his mother, they found 
themselves obliged to acknowledge the 
right of her son. 

Whether King James made a proper use, 
or not, of the right inherent in himself, and 



XXX PREFACE. 

the unanimity collected in his people, is a 
point neither proper nor necessary to be 
discussed here. It is certain he began his 
reign ungracefully. He drove the people 
from his presence by proclamation, as they 
loyally flocked to see him ; and he hanged 
up a cutpurse without any other authority 
or trial, but his own will and pleasure. 
This last action was little murmured at du- 
ring the astonishment of joy with which his 
new subjects received him ; but it was 
deeply, though not openly, remembered 
in the reign of his son, when jealousies 
arose and increased to such a height, that 
they overturned the king, the kingdom, the 
law, and the gospel. 

In the subsequent Memoirs will appear 
the yielding, timid disposition of King 
James I. : a prince flattered in his lifetime 
to the height of heaven : crammed down, 
since his death, into the lowest pit of hell. 
The extremes of flattery are always succeed- 
ed by the extremes of obloquy. Extremes 
of every kind are evidently avoided by Sir 



PREFACE. XXXI 

Robert Cary. He never dips his pen in gall ; 
he tells the truth, and the truth only ; he 
represents things as they were, without any 
sinister turn either on causes or effects : he 
appears open without indiscretion, plain 
without meanness, sincere without bias, and 
brave without ostentation. From his short 
sketches of characters, (I wish they had 
been more expanded and numerous,) we 
see every now and then into the closets of 
the two princes, Elizabeth and James, un- 
der whom he passed the vigour of his days. 
Queen Elizabeth was his chief friend during 
her lifetime. Her discernment and appro- 
bation were honours that reflected splen- 
dour upon him, as great as could arise from 
her royalty and exaltation. In the next 
reign, the consort of King James (a prin- 
cess who has undergone a variety of praise 
and censure) was remarkably firm and zea- 
lous in the protection of him. Henry, 
Prince of Wales, looked upon him with a 
most favourable eye ; and King Charles I., 
to whom he was many years an immediate 



XXX11 PREFACE. 

servant, took an early and public opportu- 
nity of raising him to the dignity of an 
English Earl. 

With that account he concludes his Me- 
moirs, of which a considerable share is ta- 
ken up in giving a very exact and connec- 
ted account of those Ostrogoths, the Bor- 
derers ; a set of wild men, who, from the 
time when the Romans left our island, till 
the death of Queen Elizabeth, kept the 
southern part of Scotland and the northern 
part of England in a perpetual civil war, 
and seem to have equalled the CafFres in 
the trade of stealing, and the Hottentots in 
ignorance and brutality. A description of 
these beasts in human shape, is extracted 
by Camden from JEneas Sylvius, after- 
wards Pope Pius II., who went into Scot- 
land in the year 1448. * As the times 



* Instead of referring to an authority so antiquated, 
the Earl might have quoted the following brief and ani- 
mated description of Camden from Lesly. " What 
manner of cattle stealers they are, that inhabit these 



PREFACE. XXXlll 

grew more and more civilized, these ani- 
mals became more and more human ; but 
still retained a great degree of their natu- 
ral cruelty, all their thirst of plunder, all 



valleys in the marches of both kingdoms, John Lesley, 
a Scotchman himself, and Bishop of Ross, will inform 
you. They sally out of their own borders, in the night, 
in troops, through unfrequented bye-ways, and many in- 
tricate windings. All the day-time, they refresh them- 
selves and their horses in lurking holes they had pitch- 
ed upon before, till they arrive in the dark at those 
places they have a design upon. As soon as they have 
seized upon the booty, they, in like manner, return 
home in the night, through blind ways, and fetching 
many a compass. The more skilful any captain is to 
pass through those wild deserts, crooked turnings, and 
deep precipices, in the thickest mists and darkness, his 
reputation is the greater, and he is looked upon as a 
man of an excellent head. — And they are so very cun- 
ning, that they seldom have their booty taken from 
them, unless sometimes, when, by the help of blood- 
hounds following them exactly upon the tract, they may 
chance to fall into the hands of their adversaries. When 
being taken, they have so much persuasive eloquence, 
and so many smooth insinuating words at command, 
that if they do not move their judges, nay, and even 
their adversaries, (notwithstanding the severity of their 
natures,) to have mercy, yet they incite them to admi- 
ration and compassion." E, 



XXXIV PREFACE, 

their strength, and all the fierceness of their 
courage. Particular governors, entitled 
Lord- Wardens of the East, West, and Mid- 
dle Marches, were constantly instituted to 
protect the English territories against such 
barbarians. The Marches were so deno- 
minated, because the inhabitants, being in 
a perpetual state of variance and hostility, 
were always ready to March,* either to 
annoy the enemy, or to defend themselves. 
There were March laws, and March courts 
of judicature, of which the Lord Warden, 
or his deputies, were supreme judges. Once 
a year a March day was appointed, when 
the Scots and English met, and adjusted, 
or attempted to adjust, all the disputes and 
claims of either nation upon the Borders. 

Castles were kept well garrisoned. Each 
person of any considerable estate was ob- 



* The explanation of the original word Marcha, or 
Marc'uz, with all its derivatives, is sufficiently uncertain. 
But it certainly does not come from the verb to march, 
as here assumed. It simply signifies a boundary, whe- 
ther of a private estate, a parish, or a kingdom. E. 



PREFACE. XXXV 

liged to provide himself with a castle, 
which was generally confirmed to him and 
his heirs by the crown. Some castles were 
fitted up entirely at the expense of the 
crown. That at Norham was given by 
Queen Elizabeth to Sir Robert Cary, for 
the life of himself and his two sons. Some 
lands were certainly annexed to it, by the 
price it bore, no less than six thousand 
pounds, when sold to Lord Dunbar. * 

Strong watches were set in every March* 
at small distances from each other. The 
inhabitants of the smallest villages were 
supplied with arms, especially in such 
places as were most liable to invasions. 
One good effect arose from this state of 
watchfulness and danger ; the gentry and 
the yeomen were rendered vigilant and 
warlike. Neither luxury, nor her two el- 
dest sons cowardice and indolence, could 
easily find footing in the Marches. Every 
gentleman was obliged to be an officer; 

* See the Memoirs, p. 136. 



XXXVI PREFACE. 

every peasant was born a soldier. The 
majors, the colonels, the captains of such 
a militia were really, not nominally, men 
of arms. Sir Robert Gary mentions, in ge- 
neral, some persons who were averse to 
follow him into Scotland, imagining that 
the Scotch outlaws must be far superior in 
the force of numbers; they were so, but 
were entirely subdued. 

The Marches long since reduced, the 
castles demolished, the Debateable Lands 
settled, and the two kingdoms united un- 
der one sovereign, make all farther enqui- 
ries into their former state unnecessary. 
The prudent, the courageous, and the ac- 
tive part which our author acted during his 
wardenship, will be found fully delineated 
in his own Memoirs. His situation was 
nice and perilous. It required a good head 
and a strong heart to fulfil such a post. 
But when moderation of temper is joined, 
as in him, with bravery of spirit, the great- 
est difficulties are certainly, if not easily, to 
be overcome. 



PREFACE. XXXV11 

The felicities that might have arisen from 
the accession of King James I. were such 
as must have rendered us the envy and 
the dread of all foreign nations. After 
twelve hundred years' contests with the 
North Britons, we became one people, uni- 
ted in the same interest, and subjects to 
the same sovereign. But these are reflec- 
tions foreign and vague to the Memoirs of 
Sir Robert Cary ; yet as the present situa- 
tion of times and things unavoidably occur 
to our thoughts, whenever we read any his- 
torical anecdotes of our ancestors, I may 
possibly be forgiven in adding farther, that 
by our intercourse and conjunction with 
the Scots, we find ourselves united to a 
wise and a wary nation, whose writings are 
ipany of them the ornament and illustra- 
tion of this age. 

During the whole reign of King James 
I. the Memoirs are entirely personal, but 
not unentertaining ; and they are con- 
cluded by the coronation of King Charles 
J. I ought now to give an account by 



XXXV111 PREFACE. 

what means they came into my hands. 
They were copied by myself from a ma- 
nuscript entrusted to me by Lady Eliza- 
beth Spelman, daughter to the Earl of Mid- 
dleton, to whom I had the honour of be- 
ing in some degree of affinity. I have most 
religiously adhered to the original manu- 
script. 

The dying scene of Queen Elizabeth 
has already been extracted and published 
among Sir Thomas Edmund's papers, by 
my very worthy and learned friend Dr 
Birch in his Historical View from the year 
1592 to 1617. 

Anecdotes of our English history have 
been ever sought after with great eagerness* 
especially those of Queen Elizabeth's reign. 
I here offer my mite to be thrown into that 
treasury. 



MEMOIRS 



OF 



THE LIFE OF ROBERT CARY, 



HARON OF LEPPINGTON AND EARL OF MONMOUTH. 



MEMOIRS 

OF 

THE LIFE OF ROBERT CAREY, 

BARON OF LEPPINGTON, 

AND 

EARL OF MONMOUTH. 



Lord my God, open mine eyes, and enlarge my heart 
with a true understanding of thy great mercies, that 
thou hast blessed me withal, from my first being, un- 
til this my old age ; and give me of thy grace to call 
to mind in some measure thy great and manifold bles- 
sings, that thou hast blessed me withal ; though my 
weakness be such, and my memory so short, as I have 
no abilities to express them as I ought to do, yet, Lord ! 
be pleased to accept of this sacrifice of praise and 
thanksgiving. 

1 had the happiness to be born of good 
parents ; I was youngest of ten sons ; they 
brought me up under tutors and governors, 



% MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

to give me learning and knowledge ; but I 
must acknowledge my own weakness, I had 
not ability to profit much thereby. After 
I attained to the years of seventeen, or 
thereabouts, Sir Thomas Layton was sent 
ambassador from the queen to the states 
first, and then to Don John de Austria. *. 
My father, the Lord Hunsdon, -f fitted me 



# Natural son of the Emperor Charles V. born at 
Ratisbon in 1547., a prince of great prowess in arms,, 
and particularly famous by his conquests over the Turks. 
He had been educated in a private manner in the coun- 
try during the Emperor's life. The splendour of his 
birth was concealed from him, till Philip IL, son and 
successor of Charles V., in the year 1561, owned him as 
his natural brother, brought him to court, and, in the 
year 1570, sent him against the Moors. In the year 
1575, the king, his brother, constituted him governor of 
the Spanish Netherlands. After various conquests no- 
tified in history, he died October 1, 1578, in the thirty- 
second year of his age, of the plague, or, as adds Thua- 
nus, of grief and vexation, on account of suspicions con- 
ceived against him by Philip II. His funeral obsequies 
were performed with all the pomp and magnificent ce- 
remonies of those times. He expired in his camp near 
Namur. m 

f Henry Cary, Lord Hunsdon, whose pedigree is men- 
tioned in the preface. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 3 

to go the journey with him ; we were 
abroad almost all the winter; after we had 
been with the states at Bruxelles, we took 
leave, and went on our journey towards 
Don John ; we found him at Luxemburgh. 
The next day he removed towards Na- 
mours,* and appointed our ambassador to 
meet him at Mons in Henault, which we 
did, and there had audience of him ; we 
stayed but two days with him, and took 
our leaves. After some time spent, in our 
return, at Bruxelles with the states, we re- 
turned to Dunkirk, and there took ship- 
ping for England ; and in short time came 
to court, where we dispersed, every man as 
he liked best. 

Shortly after this, Monsieur, -f the King 
of France's brother, came, and remained in 



* Namur. 

•j- The scenes of courtship, by letters, visits, and me- 
diators, which passed between the Duke d'Alenc.on, af- 
terwards d'Anjou, and Queen Elizabeth, are sufficiently 
known and recorded. He was the youngest son of Hen- 
ry II. and Catherine de Medici, and when he became 



13 



4 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

our court a good time. All the time of his 
being here, God so blessed me with means 
and abilities, as I was ever one in every 
action that our court triumphs then pro- 
duced ; and they were such as the best 
wits and inventions in those days could 
devise to make the court glorious, and to 
entertain so great a guest. * This Duke's 
stay here, was from Michaelmas to Christ- 



only brother of Henry II F. was surnamed Monsieur. His 
father Henry was accidentally killed in a tournament 
by the Comte de Montgomery. Henry left four sons; 
Francis, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots ; Charles, 
under whom was perpetrated the massacre at Paris, dis- 
tinguished by the feast of St Bartholomew ; Alexander, 
who, on the day of his confirmation, changed his chris- 
tian name to Henry, according to the usage of the 
church of Rome, and was afterwards stabbed by Cle- 
ment the monk ; Hercules, who changed his christian 
name in the same manner to Francis, and who, after a 
long and successless attempt to marry Queen Elizabeth, 
and various turbulent adventures in the Netherlands, 
died June 10, 1584, not without some suspicions of be- 
ing poisoned at Chateau Thierry, in France. 

* An account of a very splendid tournament perform- 
ed on this occasion, is preserved in Hollinshed's Chroni- 
cle, Vol. IV. p. 435, of the late 4to edition. Upon this 
©ccasion, Sir Thomas Perrot and Mr Cooke appeared 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 5 

mas ; * then he went from hence to Flush- 
ing, and from thence to Antwerp, where 
he was created, by the states, Duke of 
Brabant with great solemnity. My Lord 
of Nottingham as admiral, my Lord of 
Sussex, chamberlain of the queen's house- 
hold, -f and my father being governor of 
Berwick, were sent to convey him over in 
three of the queen's best ships. J They 
brought him to Antwerp ; and after the 
Duke was settled in his government, they 
took their leaves, and came for England. 



as challengers in armour, bedecked with apples and other 
fruit, representing persons of no less antiquity than 
Adam and Eve. Our author's name does not occur in 
the list of the gallants. E. 

* Anno 1581. 

t Thomas RatclifTe, a gallant and brave soldier, the 
avowed competitor and rival of the Earl of Leicester. E. 

% The train whom Elizabeth despatched to do honour 
to her suitor in the eyes of the Netherlands, amounted 
to a hundred gentlemen of the best blood in England, 
and more than three hundred serving-men. Lord Huns- 
don, alone, had, of gentlemen and others, a hundred and 
fifty in his train. His sons, Sir George and John Cary, 
attended him on this occasion, as well as our author. E. 



O MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

My father left me there behind him, to stay 
some time with Sir John Norrice, * who 
then was in Antwerp ; and thence he ap- 
pointed me to travel into France, and there 
to stay for a time until he should send 
for me back. I staid at Antwerp from 
Shrovetide until Easter ; then I took my 
journey from thence into France, and made 
no stay till I came to Paris, and there I 
stayed nine months : then upon an acci- 
dent of some fear in England, that Eng- 
lishmen should be ill dealt with in France, -j- 
my father sent for me in all haste, to come 
away with all the speed I could for Eng- 
land : though very unwillingly, I obeyed, 
and came home about Christmas. 

The summer after, j I went with Mr Se- 



* He was second son of Henry Lord Norrice. " He 
was," says Cambden, " a man who deserved the utmost 
that fame could say, or his country could do for him." 
See Cambden's Life of Queen Elizabeth. 

•f* This suspicion probably arose from the ascen- 
dence of the Duke of Guise, and the Catholic party in 
France. E. 

t Anno 1583. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. f 



cretary Walsingham into Scotland ; he be- 
ing sent thither ambassador * from her ma- 
jesty. It pleased the king at that time to 
take such a liking of me, as he wrote ear- 
nestly to the queen at our return, to give 
me leave to come back to him again, to 
attend on him at his court, assuring her 
majesty I should not repent my atten- 
dance. 

Her majesty gave her consent : I went 
to Berwick with my father a while after, 
with full resolution to go to him, being 
well provided of men, money, apparel, 
and horses ; but my father was no sooner 
come to Berwick, and I ready to take my 
journey to the king, but a countermand -f 
was sent to my father from the queen, 
straitly charging him to stay me, and not 



* To give advice to King James VI. A remarkable 
embassy, in which the subtle Walsingham effectually 
discovered the temper and disposition of that king. 

+ The queen's jealousy of the King of Scots, and of 
all those whom he countenanced, appears by this coun- 
termand. 



8 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

to suffer me to go into Scotland to the 
king. 

My journey being thus stayed, I return- 
ed shortly after, with my father, to the 
court. The beginning of the spring after 
Sluce * was besieged, and my Lord of Es- 
sex stole from court, with intent to get into 
Sluce if he could ; the queen sent me af- 
ter him, commanding me to use the best 
means, if I could find him, to persuade him 
to return to court. I made no long stay, 
but with all the speed I could went after 
him ; I found him at Sandwich, and with 
much ado I got him to return. As we were 
riding post back, I stayed a little behind 
him, and when he was out of sight, I re- 
turned to Sandwich. I left my Lord of 
Cumberland -f there, who had provided a 
small bark ; and we made all the haste we 



# Siuys, called in French l'Ecluse, in Latin Clausiae ; 
a town and sea-port of Flanders,, which underwent 
many sieges, and submitted to a variety of masters du- 
ring the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 

f George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 9 

could towards Sluce. When we came right 
over Ostend, the water was so shallow, we 
could not get in with our bark ; we took 
our ship-boat, and rowed towards Ostend. 
We were no sooner come near the shore, 
but we were told that Sluce was yielded 
to the enemy that day ; notwithstanding, 
we went ashore to Ostend, where I found 
my brother Edmund a captain of the town. 
We were no sooner come to our lodging, 
but it was told us, for certain, that the ene- 
my was fully resolved to besiege Ostend 
with the greatest expedition that they could. 
The next morning, my Lord of Cumber- 
land, seeing our hopes frustrate by the 
town's yielding, resolved to go to his bark 
again, and from Flushing to go to Bergen- 
op-Soame * to see my Lord of Leicester, -j- 



* Bergen-op-Zoom is a fortified town of Brabant, si- 
tuated near the eastern shore of the river Scheld, parti- 
cularly known to the present times by the siege of it in 
the year 1747. 

f Leicester, as every reader may remember, was sent 
by Elizabeth, as ambassador extraordinary to the states 



10 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

and then to return home again, thinking 
that I would go with him : but I was re- 
solved of another way, and told him, that 
it was for certain reported, that the enemy 
would shortly besiege the town, that I had 
a brother there, whom I could not leave, 
but meant to be partner with him both in 
good and ill. We took leave ; he to his 
bark, and I to stay with my brother. The 
report increased daily more and more of 
the enemy's approach : within two or three 
days after my Lord of Nottingham, * that 
was our admiral, came to us with provi- 
sion of munition and victuals, and left with 
us Sir William Read to be commander of 
the town. After he had stayed two or 
three days with us, he took ship again, and 



of Holland, and by them invested with supreme autho- 
rity. This was in 1586. E. 

# Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, remarkable 
for courage, conduct, fidelity, splendour, and every 
branch of worth and honour, supported by great abili- 
ties, through a long and prosperous life of eighty-eight 
years. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 11 

went for England. We stayed there some 
fortnight. At last, letters came to us from 
my Lord of Leicester, that the town, that 
year, was free from any siege, and com- 
manded that six of the companies that 
w^ere there, should embark themselves with 
all speed, and come to him to Bergen-op- 
Soame. We came the next da}^, (for my 
brother's company being one of those were 
appointed to go, I went with him.) I stay- 
ed there most part of the summer; many 
things in that time were attempted, no- 
thing of worth performed. I, finding no 
hope of any good action to be performed, 
towards Michaelmas returned for England, 
and found by that little experience, that 
a brave war and a poor spirit in a comman- 
der, never agree zvell together. * 



* This observation seems to be levelled at Robert 
Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the undeserved and worthless 
favourite of our renowned queen. He was treacherous 
to Lady Jane Grey, abject to Queen Mary, and ungrate- 
ful to Queen Elizabeth. 



12 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

The next year (which was 1586) was the 
queen of Scots' beheading. I lived in 
court, had small means of my friends ; yet 
God so blessed me, that I was ever able to 
keep company with the best. In all tri- 
umphs I was one ; either at tilt, tourney, 
or barriers in masque or balls : I kept men 
and horses far above my rank, and so con- 
tinued a long time. At which time (few 
or none in the court being willing to un- 
dertake that journey) her majesty sent me 
to the king of Scots, to make known her 
innocence of her sister's death, with letters 
of credence from herself to assure all that 
I should affirm. 

I was waylaid in Scotland, if I had 
gone in, to have been murdered ; but the 
king's majesty, knowing the disposition of 
his people, and the fury they were in, sent 
to me to Berwick, to let me know, that no 
power of his could warrant my life at that 
time ; therefore, to prevent further mischief, 
he would send me no convoy, but would 
send two of his counsel to the bound-road, 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 13 

to receive my letters, or what other mes- 
sage I had to deliver, * I had reason to 
give his majesty thanks, and so I did ; and 
sent him word, I would, with all speed, 
advertise her majesty of the gracious care 
he had of me ; and as I should be direc- 
ted, I would inform his majesty. I was 
commanded to accept of the king's offer. 
Sir George Hume, -f and the master of 
Melven, met me at the bound-road, where 
I delivered my message in writing, and my 
letters from the queen to the king ; and 
then came presently (post) to court, where 
I had thanks of her majesty for what I had 
done. 



* During these gracious private messages sent to Mr 
Robert Cary at Berwick, James VI. breathed forth at 
Edinburgh, open threatenings of resentment, and thun- 
dering declarations of revenge, all which were breath 
only. Vox et praterea nihil. Orrery. 

Spottiswoode's account of the matter, is, that the king 
denied Cary presence, and refused to receive his let- 
ters, which were therefore delivered after some delay 
to two of his council, deputed to receive them. E. 

+ Master of the wardrobe to James VI. 



14 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

The next year (1587) I was sent ambas- 
sador again to the King of Scots. When 
I came to Berwick, I sent for a safe con- 
duct. I had word from the king, he was 
going a journey towards Lough-mable * to 
suppress some rebels that held that castle 
against him, and therefore desired me to 
make what haste I could to Carlisle, and 
from thence I should come to him to Dum- 
fries, and there he would warrant my safe 
coming, and my safe return. I did as I 
was directed, and came to Dumfries, where 
I was by his majesty nobly entertained ; 
and stayed with him there some fourteen 
days, and then took my leave, and came 
for England ; and by the way I sent to the 
king from Carlisle two pieces of ordinance, 
with bullets, powder, and all things neces- 
sary, by which means he recovered his cas- 



# Lochmaben, a castle in Dumfries-shire. It was at 
present occupied by a kinsman and retainer of Lord 
Maxwell, who, returning from Spain, had excited an in- 
surrection among the Catholics in the south-west of 
Scotland. E. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 15 

tie. But Robert Maxfield, * that held the 
castle against him, made an escape, and 
got to sea, and so prevented the king's jus- 
tice for that time. I returned to court, 
where the queen and counsel allowed very 
well of what I had done ; and so I ended 
that journey. 

The next year (1588) the King of Spain's 
great Armado came upon our coast, think- 
ing to devour us all. Upon the news sent 
to court from Plymouth of their certain ar- 
rival, my Lord Cumberland and myself 
took post horse, and rode strait to Ports- 
mouth, where we found a frigate that car- 
ried us to sea ; and having sought for the 
fleets a whole day, the night after we fell 
amongst them ; where it was our fortune to 
light first on the Spanish fleet; and find- 
ing ourselves in the wrong, we tacked about, 



* This is inaccurate. John Lord Maxwell escaped in 
a small bark, but was pursued and taken at sea by Sir 
William Stewart. David Maxwell., who held out Loch- 
maben, was hanged upon the surrender. The rest of the 
garrison were admitted to quarter. E. 



16 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

and in some short time got to our own fleet, 
which was not far from the other. At our 
coming aboard our admiral, we stayed 
there awhile; but finding the ship much 
pestered, and scant of cabins, we left the 
admiral, and went aboard Captain Rey- 
man, where we stayed, and were very wel- 
come, and much made of. It was on 
Thursday that we came to the fleet. All 
that day we followed close the Spanish Ar- 
mado, and nothing was attempted on either 
side ; the same course we held all Friday 
and Saturday, by which time the Spanish 
fleet cast anchor just before Calais. We 
likewise did the same, a very small dis- 
tance behind them, and so continued till 
Monday morning about two of the clock; 
in which time our council of war had pro- 
vided six old hulks, and stuffed them full 
of all combustible matter fit for burning, 
and on Monday, at two in the morning, 
they were let loose, with each of them a 
man in her to direct them. The tide ser- 
ving, they brought them very near the Spa- 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 17 

nish fleet, so that they could not miss to i 
come amongst the midst of them: then 
they set fire on them, and came off them- 
selves, having each of them a little boat to 
bring him off. The ships set on fire came 
so directly to the Spanish fleet, as they had 
no way to avoid them, but to cut all their 
halsers, and so escape ; and their haste was 
such, that they left one of their four great 
galeasses on ground before Calais, which 
our men took, and had the spoil of, where 
many of the Spaniards were slain with the 
governor thereof, but most of them were 
saved with wading ashore to Calais. They 
being in this disorder, we made ready to 
follow them, where began a cruel fight, 
and we had such advantage both of wind 
and tide, as we had a glorious day of them ; 
continuing fight from four o'clock in the 
morning till almost five or six at night, 
where they lost a dozen or fourteen of their 
best ships, some sunk, and the rest ran 
ashore in diverse parts to keep themselves 
from sinking. After God had given us this 



18 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

great victory, they made all the haste they 
could away, and we followed them Tues- 
day and Wednesday, by which time they 
were gotten as far as Flamborough-head. 
It was resolved on Wednesday at night, 
that, by four o'clock on Thursday, we 
should have a new fight with them for a 
farewell ; but by two in the morning, there 
was a flag of council hung out in our vice- 
admiral, when it was found that in the 
whole fleet there was not munition suffici- 
ent to make half a fight ; and therefore 
it was there concluded, that we should let 
them pass, and our fleet to return to the 
Downs. That night we parted with them, 
we had a mighty storm. Our fleet cast an- 
chor, and endured it ; but the Spanish fleet, 
wanting their anchors, were many of them 
cast ashore on the west of Ireland, where 
they had all their throats cut by the 
kernes ; * and some of them on Scotland, 
where they were no better used ; and the 

* Irish banditti, E. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 19 

rest, with much ado, got into Spain again. 
Thus did God bless us, and gave victory 
over this invincible navy ; the sea calmed, 
and all our ships came to the Downs on 
Friday in safety. 

On Saturday my Lord of Cumberland 
and myself came on shore, and took post 
horse, and found the queen in her army at 
Tilbury camp, where I fell sick of a burn- 
ing fever, and was carried in a litter to 
London. I should have been then sent 
ambassador to the King of Scots, but could 
not by reason of my sickness. 

The next year (which was 1589) was the 
Journey of Portugal, * where my Lord of 



# What is here called the Journey of Portugal, was 
an expedition undertaken by Sir John Norris, and Sir 
Francis Drake, almost entirely at their own expense, 
against Spain and Portugal ; chiefly against the latter. 
The queen was frugal, she only found six ships of war, 
and permitted soldiers and sailors to be raised for the 
expedition. Stowe, I think, says, she gave sixty thou- 
sand pounds in money towards the undertaking. The 
success was not equal to the design ; but the bravery 
and spirit with which the enterprize was carried on, will 
remain a perpetual honour to the English nation. 



.20 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

Essex * stole from court to go that jour- 
ney, and left me behind him, which did so 
much trouble me, that I had no mind to 
stay in the court ; but, having given out 
some money to go on foot in twelve days 
to Berwick, -f- I performed it that sum- 
mer, which was worth to me two thousand 
pounds, which bettered me to live at court 
a good while after. { 



* Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, omitted no op- 
portunity of shewing his courage, activity, and magni- 
ficence. His part in this expedition was not only car- 
ried on without the queen's knowledge and consent, but 
at his own expense. Throughout his whole life his 
conduct appears such, as to extort at once from all who 
have considered his character, the highest degree of ad- 
miration, pity, censure, and esteem. 

+ In the county of Northumberland, on the river 
Tweed, three hundred miles north of London. 

J The spirit of laying wagers subsisted with our an- 
cestors as thoroughly, if not as extravagant!}^, as with us 
their gayer and less formal descendants. Monsieur de 
Voltaire is right in his assertion, where he says, Le comte 
de Stairs paria, selon le genie de sa nation. Orrery. 

This giving out, or staking money, to be returned in 
double or greater proportion upon the accomplishment, 
by the better, of the enterprize in question, is ridiculed 
in Jonson's " Every Man out of his Humour;" where Sir 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 21 

The next journey I undertook was into 
France with my Lord of Essex * (1591). I 
was a captain of one hundred and fifty 
men. This journey was very chargeable to 
me ; for I carried with me a waggon with 
five horses to draw it, I carried five great -j- 
horses over with me, and one little ambling 
nag, and 1 kept a table all the while I was 
there that cost me thirty pounds a week, 
which was from midsummer to almost 
Christmas ; and yet God so blessed me, 
that I never wanted, but He still sent me 
means to supply my wants. 

My Lord [of Essex] had over with him 
two hundred horse, and four thousand foot, 
besides volunteers, which were many. Af- 
ter that my Lord had stayed at Arques J 



Puntarvolo puts forth certain sums to be repaid, five for 
one, on the return of himself, his dog, and his cat, from 
the Turk's court in Constantinople. E. 

* To the assistance of Henry IV. E. 

f By great horses are meant, dressed, or menaged 
horses. 

J A city in Normandy, distant about a league and a 
half from Dieppe. 



22 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

beside Deep * some three weeks, or more, 
and had commodiously lodged his army, 
he made a journey to Noyon, and passed 
still through the enemy's country, without 
any let or interruption, and took only his 
two hundred horse for his guard. In three 
long days journey we came to the King to 
Noyon. *f* There my Lord stayed with the 
King four days, and then returned towards 
Arques again : but in the return we might 
see many troops of horse of the enemies 
approaching very near us, but they never 
durst set upon us, so that we came in safe- 
ty to Gisors, J a garrison town of the King's. 



* Beside Deep, signifies near, or on the side of Dieppe. 
A port town in Normandy. Orrery. 

Essex complained bitterly of being left inactive in 
Normandy, and at length had orders to join the King at 
Noyon, which he performed after a long and difficult 
march. E. 

f A town in Picardy upon the river Oisa. The anci- 
ent Noviodunum, mentioned by Caesar, as a fortification 
difficult to be taken. It is the birth-place of Calvin, 
who was born there in the year 1509. 

J A town in Normandy, which owes its original to a 
castle built there in the year 1097, by William II. [Ru- 
fus] King of England, and Duke of Normandy. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 23 

The next day we were to go to Arques, the 
way that we came. Our carriages were 
loaden, and gone out of the ports of the 
town, and my Lord and his company were 
on horseback ready to follow; but there 
came a French gentleman in good time to 
the town, and stayed our carriages, and 
came in great haste to my Lord, and de- 
sired to speak with him in private: my 
Lord alighted, and went into his lodging 
with him, and most of the company stayed 
on horseback expecting his return. When 
the Frenchman and my Lord were toge- 
ther, he discovered to my Lord that he was 
betrayed by the governor of the town,* 
and that by his intelligence, Monsieur Vil- 
liers, -f with above two thousand foot, and 

# Of Arques. 

f The person mentioned here, is Andre de Brancas, 
Seigneur de Villars, one of the principal chiefs of the 
league. Villars est celuy, (says a French historian,) qui 
defendit Rouen contre Henry IF. 1592, avec toute la bra- 
voure et toute la conduite possible. The ambush, though 
unsuccessful, was critically intended. Monsieur de Vil- 



24 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

five hundred horse, were laid in a great 
wood, some three miles off the town, which 
we were to pass through, to cut us ail in 
pieces. This being made known to my 
Lord, some few of my Lord's friends were 
called to council ; and presently it was re- 
solved that we should make no stay there, 
but turn our course towards Pont-large, * 
so we marched a clean contrary way to 
that we should have done ; and some nine 
miles off the town, we put over the river 
Seine, and lay on the other side of the river 
in the open field all that night. The next 
day we got betimes to Pont-large, where, 
by the governor of the town, my Lord and 
all his troops were very well entertained. 
By this means God so blessed us, that we 



liers appears to have been a man of bravery in the field, 
of judgment in the cabinet, and of conduct in both. He 
died admiral of France in the year 1595. The family 
was originally Neapolitan, their name Brancacio. 

* Pont de l'Arche, a town in Normandy, upon the 
Seine. This town stands three leagues above Roan, and 
was the first place that surrendered to King Henry IV, 
upon his coming to the crown. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. l 25 

escaped this imminent clanger. Being all 
safe at Pont-large, my Lord sent to Arques 
for all his foot to come to him, which came 
in five or six days. After they had rested 
a while, he took leave of the governor, and 
marched by small journeys towards Arques, 
for then we feared no encounter of any 
enemy. The second night we lodged at a 
great village-town called Pavillie, * where, 
finding great store of victual, and all 
things necessary for the relief of the sol- 
diers, it was resolved that w r e should stay 
there four or five days. In which time, to 
shew Villiers how little we esteemed him 
and his forces, in a morning betimes both 
foot and horse marched some five miles off, 
only in a bravado, to see whether Villiers, 
or any of his troops in the town, durst come 
out and skirmish with us. *f* But there un- 



# Pa villi, a town in Normandy, four leagues from 
Kouen. 

f The bravery of these times was even wanton ana* 
unnecessary. 



26 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

fortunately we lost Mr Walter Devereux,* 
my Lord's only brother, with a shot in the 
head ; and so we returned that night to Pa- 
villi e, the whole army being full of sorrow 
for the loss of so worthy a gentleman. 

The next night after, the town fell on 
fire, and in less than an hour, it was all 
burnt to the ground, so that we had much 
ado to get our troops and carriages safe out 
of the town. 

In four days after we came to Arques, 
where our horse and foot rested a good 
space, and refreshed themselves, till it was 
resolved that my Lord and his troops only 
should go to besiege Gornye, -f which was 
some fortnight after. We had not stayed 
long at Arques, but the whole army re- 



# Second son of Walter Devereux, the first Earl of 
Essex, who, in the year 1573, had leave from Queen Eli- 
zabeth to go into Ireland to conquer the barony of 
Clandeboy at his own expense. Orrery, 

Essex was blamed by the Queen for his rashness and 
indiscretion upon this occasion. E. 

+ Gournay, a large city in Normandy, situated upon 
tfce river Epte, ten leagues from Roan. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 2? 

moved from thence towards Gornye to be- 
siege the town. We lay before it some ten 
days, in which time there came letters out 
of England to my Lord of Essex, to com- 
mand him presently to repair for Eng- 
land, and to leave his charge with Sir 
Thomas Layton. He presently dispatched 
Sir Thomas Darc}^ to desire longer stay ; 
and to let the Queen know that the King * 
intended shortly to besiege Roan, and what 
a dishonour it would be for ever to him, if 
he should leave him at such a time. Here 
Colonel Cromwell left the camp, and went 
for England ; having such urgent occasions 
of business that he could stay no longer. 
My Lord of Essex, upon his departure, gave 
me his regiment; and I made choice of my 
Lord of Valentia to be my lieutenant-colo- 
nel of my regiment, and gave my captain- 
ship to Sir Francis Rich, who was lieute- 
nant of my company before. After we had 
battered the town, and made a breach, in 

* Henry IV. 



28 MEMOIRS OE ROBERT GARY, 

a morning betimes we were ready to give 
an assault ; but the chief commanders of 
the town, fearing their own weakness, held 
out a white flag to parley ; and upon con- 
ference it was agreed, that the commanders 
and soldiers should in safety pass out of 
the town, and that the town should be de- 
livered to my Lord for the King's use. All 
which was performed that morning before 
twelve of the clock. 

From this town my Lord sent me to 
court with the news of the yielding of the 
town, and the manner of it. I made what 
haste I could to get over from Dieppe, and 
within four days after I left my Lord, I ar- 
rived at Oatlands betimes in the morning. 
Before I came, Sir Thomas Darcy was sent 
back with a strait command for my Lord 
to return, as he would answer it at his 
utmost peril, with commission for Sir 
Thomas Layton to execute the place. I 
spake with most of the council before the 
Queen was stirring, who assured me, that 
there was no removing of her Majesty from 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 29 

her resolution, and advised me to take heed 
that I gave her no cause to be offended 
with me, by persuading her for his stay, 
which they assured me would do no good, 
but rather hurt. About ten of the clock 
she sent for me. I delivered her my Lord's 
letter. She presently burst out into a great 
rage against my Lord, and vowed she 
would make him an example to all the 
world, if he presently left not his charge, 
and returned upon Sir Francis Darcy's 
coming to him. I said nothing to her till 
she had read his letter. She seemed to be 
meanly well contented with the success at 
Gorny, and then I said to her, 

" Madam, I know my Lord's care is 
such to obey all your commands, as he will 
not make one hour s stay after Sir Francis 
hath delivered him his fatal doom ; but, 
Madam, give me leave to let your Majesty 
know before hand, what you shall truly find 
at his return, after he hath had the happi- 
ness to see you, and kiss your hand. He 
doth so sensibly feel his disgrace, and how- 



30 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

ever you think it reason for this you have 
done, yet the world abroad, who know not 
the cause of his so sudden leaving his army 
to another, will esteem it a weakness in 
him, and a base cowardliness in him to 
leave the army, now, when he should meet 
the King and his whole army for the be- 
sieging of Roan. You will be deceived, 
Madam, if you think he will ever after this 
have to do with court or state affairs. I 
know his full resolution is to retire to some 
cell in the country, and to live there, as a 
man never desirous to look a good man 
in the face again. And in good faith, Ma- 
dam, to deal truly with your Majesty, I 
think you will not have him a long-lived 
man after his return. The late loss of his 
brother, whom he loved so dearly, and this 
heavy doom that you have laid upon him, 
will in a short time break his heart. Then 
your Majesty will have sufficient satisfac- 
tion for the offence he hath committed 
against you." 

She seemed to be something offended at 



EARL OF MONMOUTH, 31 

my discourse, and bade me go to dinner. 
I desired her, that if she pleased to com- 
mand me any service, I might know her 
pleasure in the afternoon, for I meant with 
all the haste I could make to return to my 
charge. I had scarce made an end of my din- 
ner, but I was sent for to come to her again. 
She delivered me a letter, written with her 
own hand * to my Lord, and bade me tell 
him, that " if there were any thing in it 
that did please him, he should give me 
thanks for it." I humbly kissed her hand, 
and said to her, " I hoped there was in it 
that which would make him of the most 
dejected man living, a new creature, re- 
joicing in nothing so much as that he had 
to serve so worthy and so gracious a mis- 
tress/' 



* This is as strong an instance as possible of the 
Queen's affection to Lord Essex. It is evident her own 
heart, not the discourse of Mr Cary, although pro- 
per and judicious, extorted from her that letter. She 
satisfied herself with the pleasure of writing to him, 
when his glory deferred the pleasure of her seeing him. 



32 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

After I had, with all due respects, taken 
my leave of her, I made no long stay, but 
that afternoon I took post horse, and made 
for France, Thus God blessed me in this 
journey, that through my poor weakness I 
procured that from her, which all my Lord's 
friends in court, nor all her council, could 
procure. 

I made all the haste I could, but came 
too late ; for that tide that I came to the 
haven to Dieppe, my Lord, having recei- 
ved her strait command from Sir Francis 
Darcy, resigned his charge to Sir Thomas 
Layton, and put himself into a little skiff 
in Dieppe, and made all the haste he could 
for England. When I came to Dieppe^ 
they all wondered that I missed him, for 
they told me it was not two hours since 
he set sail from thence. Missing him, I 
went to my charge at Arques, and there 
stayed till my Lord's return. At my Lord's 
coming to court, whereas he expected no- 
thing but her Majesty's heavy displeasure, 
he found it clean contrary ; for she used 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 33 

him with that grace and favour, that he 
staid a week with her, passing the time 
in jollity and feasting ; and then with tears 
in her eyes, she shewed her affection to 
him, and for the repair of his honour gave 
him leave to return to his charge again. * 

He made all the haste he could to 
Dieppe. I met him there. As soon as he 
saw me, he drew his rapier, and came run- 
ning to me, and laid it on my shoulder, -j- and 
straightly embraced me, and said to me, 
when he had need of one to plead for him, 
he would never use any other orator than 
myself. I delivered him the Queen's let- 
ter; then he said, " Worthy cousin, I know 
by herself how you prevailed with her, 
and what a true friend I had of you, which 
I shall never forget/' 



# The Queen was naturally of a gay mirthful temper. 
She could assume, indeed, all dispositions ; but in this 
account of her gracious reception of Essex, and her ap- 
parent disturbance of mind in taking leave of him, she 
was certainly sincere. 

f See the Preface. 



34 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

The next day my Lord went to Arques, 
and there we staid till we took our jour- 
ney to Roan. * In short time after, my 
Lord coming to his army at Arques, (where 
there was no small joy for his Lordship's 
safe return,) he received from the King his 
resolution what day and time he (Henry 
IV.) meant to besiege the city of Roan, 
with his whole army, both horse and foot ; 
and desired my Lord to fit himself and his 
troops at the time appointed, which he 
slacked not to perform with all care and 
diligence. 

My Lord's quarter was allotted to be at 
Mount Malade, -f the town lying under us 



* Roan is one of the largest and most opulent cities 
in France. It is the capital of Normandy, in which the 
Dukes of Normandy kept their courts. It is surrounded 
hy mountains. Anthony de Bourbon, King of Navarre, 
father of Henry IV., was killed near the gate of St Hi- 
lary, when Roan was besieged in the year 1562 by 
Charles IX., whose troops the King of Navarre com- 
manded. 

f Mont aux Malades. This place is a small village 
upon one of the hills which surround Roan. It is to be 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 35 

not full a quarter of an English mile. The 
King, with his horse and foot, took for his 
quarter the town of Daringtall. * Between 
the King and my Lord, lay the Switzers 
upon another hill. Upon the right hand 
of my Lord lay Montmorancie, >f close to 
the town on low ground ; the rest of the 
King's army, as well on the side we lay 
on, as on the other side of the water, were 
dispersed in diverse parts. Monsieur de 
Roulet, J Governor of Pont-large, with his 



seen in all the maps of Normandy. It lies north-west 
of Roan. 

# Darnetal is another small village upon the north- 
east side of Roan, much at the same distance from the 
city. 

f Charles de Montmorenci Seigneur de Meru, third 
son of the great Constable Ann, Duke of Montmorenci. 
He signalized his bravery in a very exemplary manner 
throughout all the battles and sieges that were carried 
on during the League. He was made admiral of France 
by Henry IV. in the year 1596. The illustrious race of 
Montmorenci have produced more great men than any 
other family in France. 

J Monsieur de Roulet was one of the earliest, who, 
upon the death of Henry III., flew to the standard of 
Henry IV. He delivered up the keys of Pont de FArche 



36 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

troops, were lodged on the other side of 
the water. The rest of the commanders, 
and the names of the places they lay in, I 
do not well remember; but sure I am, my 
Lord came to his quarter by five o'clock 
in the morning, and the whole town was 
roundly besieged before eleven of the clock. 
But Villiers, Governor of Roan, did that 
day shew himself to be a brave soldier, and 
a great commander. He brought out his 
troops, both of horse and foot, and there 
was not a quarter in the whole army, but 
what was bravely assaulted and fought 
withal by them that day. The King's 
quarter was not exempted ; but they did 
so furiously assault Montmorancie's quar- 
ter, that had not my Lord of Essex sent, 
his horse to. relieve him, he had been driven 
out of his quarter with great dishonour. 
Towards three in the afternoon, they had 



to the King, demanding no other recompence than the 
honour of serving his majesty. He was, says Perefix, a 
man of parts and of bravery. Homme de caur et d f esprit. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 37 

shewn their worth and valour in all other 
places. They came up towards my Lord's 
quarters. We were ready to entertain them, 
and we held skirmish at the least two hours ; 
and after some killed and hurt on both 
sides, they fairly retired into the town, and 
we to our lodging ; and so ended that 
day's sport. 

Diverse days after, they made sallies out 
of the town, and gave attempts to diverse 
quarters, which we that lay on high had 
the pleasure to behold, but they never at- 
tempted any thing against us but the first 
day. They had a spleen to no quarter so 
much as to Montmorancie's. The reason 
was, for that he had begged of the King, 
the government of the town, if it had been 
taken either by agreement or by assault. 

We lay long there, and to little purpose ; 
for though the town walls were weak, and 
of no force to endure a battery, which my 
Lord would fain have been at, and offered 
the King that he and his troops should be 
the first that should enter, if he would make 



38 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

a breach, (which four cannons would soon 
have done,) it would not be hearkened un- 
to ; old Byron * thinking it better, by con- 
tinuing the siege, for want of victuals to 
make them come to composition, than to 
hazard the wealth of the town to the spoil 
of the soldiers, if it should be won by as- 
sault. 

All our attempts were against St Ka- 
therine's. There we wrought in trenches 



* Armand de Gontaut Seigneur de Biron, one of the 
marshals of France ; a brave soldier, an able negociator, 
and acknowledged favourite of three succeeding princes, 
Charles IX., Henry III., and Henry IV. His age and 
experience gave him great weight with Henry IV., who, 
although neither influenced by favourites, nor ministers, 
listened attentively to his councils. Historians seem to 
think, that Biron's purposes were not always disinterest- 
ed and upright. 

He is here called old Birpn, to distinguish him from 
his eldest son Charles de Gontaut, premier Marechal de 
Biron, who made so considerable a figure at this siege, 
that the King, at his return to Paris, pointed him out 
(aux Eche-vins) to the magistrates of that city, with this 
expression, Messieurs, voici un grand General. Je le pre- 
sente a mes amis et a mes enemis. " Gentlemen, here } r ou 
see a great General. I present him to my friends and 
to my enemies." 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 39 

so near them, as we came to lie in their 
counterscarp, and had often conference 
with them in the fort. One night there 
were scaling ladders prepared, and we had 
hope to won it by scalado. My Lord was 
there with the chief gentlemen of his army. 
We were all commanded to wear shirts 
above the armour,* (I lost many shirts that I 
lent that night,) this was done accordingly. 
When all things were prepared and ready, 
we marched forwards ; and the first that 
came to set up the ladders, found them, at 
least, two yards too short ; so we were 
forced to retire with shame enough, the 
fort playing upon us in our coming on, and 
in our going off; but there was little hurt 
done, by reason of the darkness of the 
night. ^ 



# To distinguish them from the enemy. 

+ Sully, in his Memoirs, gives an account of a despe- 
rate sally made by the besieged garrison, by which the 
English were driven out of the counterscarp, after a 
fierce resistance; but on the succeeding night, Essex re- 
took the post at the head of an hundred English gentle- 
men, and maintained it till the siege was raised. E. 



40 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

One day my Lord and his best friends 
being at the head of the French, prattling 
to those in the fort, we had been all cut in 
pieces, had not the worth and valour of Sir 
Ferdinando George prevented it by God's 
assistance. For he having charge of the 
trenches that day, and a corps de guard of 
English soldiers by him, it was God's will, 
that he, looking through a loop hole, es- 
pied twenty-five or thirty armed men with 
halberds sallying out of the fort, who meant 
to come upon us on a sudden by a by-way 
that they had, and to cut all our throats : 
but he on a sudden, (seeing the present 
danger,) by commanding a dozen or four- 
teen of his best soldiers, whom he trusted 
most to follow him, in his doublet and hose, 
and his rapier by his side, leapt over the 
trenches, the rest bravely following him, 
and with all speed came upon them that 
were coming to this execution. They see- 
ing this desperate resolution, (whether they 
thought they had been betrayed, or what 
else I know not,) retired into the fort with 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 41 

all speed back again ; and he came brave- 
ly off with all his followers without any- 
hurt, though they had many shot made at 
them in their going on, and coming off 
from the rampiers. Thus by God's help, 
and this man s brave resolution, my Lord 
and all that were with him escaped this 
imminent danger. 

All the attempts we made were only 
against the fort,* my Lord still urging the 
King to batter some part of the town, but 
it would never be yielded to. Thus we 
spent a long time to little purpose, from 
Michaelmas to almost Christmas, when the 
Duke of Parma came with an army to re- 
lieve the town, and did effect it. 

The King was forced to raise his siege 
with shame enough, and to retire : * at 



* The King, according to Sully, offered the Prince of 
Parma battle at Neuf-Chattel. But the Prince, a wary 
and excellent general, avoided the combat, and filed off 
towards Rouen, which he relieved, while Henry's army 
were drawn up in vain expectation of a general engage- 
ment. E. 



42 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

which time the winter coming on, my Lord 
left his army with Sir Roger Williams, * Sir 
Thomas Baskervile, and other comman- 
ders, took his leave of the King, and came 
for England. 

I returned with my Lord, and left my 
regiment with Sir Henry Poore, (now Vis- 
count Valentia, -j~) and some fortnight be- 



* Sir Roger Williams had been sent over by Queen 
Elizabeth with six hundred men under his command to 
assist Henry IV. who afterwards requested four thousand 
more, which were sent to him under the command of 
the Earl of Essex. Both these succours were granted 
in 1591. 

f The family of Power is extinct. The Earls of An- 
glesey possess the title of Valentia. Sir Francis Annes- 
ley, knight and baronet, had a reversionary grant of the 
title. He was created Baron Mountnorris of Mount- 
norris, in the county of Armagh, in Ireland, and by 
other letters patent under the great seal of England, 
dated 11th of March, 19th of James I. he was crea- 
ted Viscount of Valentia, in the county of Kerry, in 
Ireland, to him and his heirs male ; to hold immediate- 
ly after the death of Henry Power, Lord Viscount Va- 
lentia, (the person mentioned in these Memoirs,,) with- 
out heirs male of his body ; which title, says the geneo- 
logist, Sir Francis Annesley accordingly enjoyed. He 
was the famous Lord Mountnorris who received such 
oppression and injustice from the Earl of Strafford, 






EARL OF MONMOUTH. 43 

fore Christmas, my Lord, and those that 
came with him, arrived at court, where he 
was very welcome to the Queen, and all 
that attended him, for his sake. Thus end- 
ed our French wars. 

I spent two winters and a summer in 
court after this, in which time, the Queen 
gave me out of the exchequer one thou- 
sand pounds to pay my debts, which gave 
me great relief. Presently after this, my 
old Lord Scroope * died at Carlisle, and 
the Queen gave the west wardenry to his 
son that had married my sister. He having 
that office imposed upon him, came to me 
w T ith great earnestness,- and desired me to 
be his deputy, offering me yearly that I 
should live with him in his house, he would 



# Henry Lord Scroop. He was Knight of the Gar- 
ter, governor of the castle of Carlisle, and warden of the 
West Marches towards Scotland. He left two sons, 
Thomas and Henry. Thomas married Philadelphia, 
daughter of Henry Cary, Lord Hunsdon. He was par- 
ticularly serviceable to Queen Elizabeth, by defending 
the Borders against the Scots, and by making a truce 
with them, very advantageous to England. 



44 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CAItY, 

allow me half a dozen men, and as many 
horses, to be kept at his charge ; and his 
fee being a thousand marks yearly, he 
would part it with me, and I should have 
the half. This his noble offer I accepted 
of, left the court, and went with him to 
Carlisle, where I was no sooner come, but 
I entered into my office. 

Thus after I had passed my best time 
in court, and got little, I betook myself to 
the country, after I was past one-and-thirty 
years old, where I lived with great con- 
tent : for we had a stirring world, and few 
days passed over my head but I was on 
horseback, either to prevent mischief, or to 
take malefactors, and to bring the Border 
in better quiet than it had been in times 
past. * God blessed me in all my actions, 



# The King of Scotland, afterwards our James I. ha- 
ving vented all his anger against Queen Elizabeth in 
words and vapours, began to consider that silence and 
submission were the likeliest means to lead him to the 
succession of her throne. So early as 1587, he prohi- 
bited the incursions on England, which commenced on 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 45 

and I cannot remember that I undertook 
any thing in the time that I was there, but 
it took good effect. One memorable thing 
of God's mercy shewed unto me, was such, 
as I have good cause still to remember it. 

1 had private intelligence given me, that 
there were two Scottishmen that had kil- 
led a churchman in Scotland, and were by 
one of the Greenes * relieved. This Greene 



the execution of Queen Mary. In the year 1595, he 
published a proclamation, prohibiting, on very severe pe- 
nalties, his subjects on and near the borders of the two 
kingdoms, either to oppress or any ways molest and in- 
jure the English, Queen Elizabeth published another 
proclamation to the same purpose. From this time 
greater peace and harmony than had been, were main- 
tained by the subjects of each sovereign, and a better 
union subsisted between Elizabeth and James. 

* Erroneously printed for Graemes, a clan of Bor- 
derers thus described in a note on the Lay of the Last 
Minstrel* 

" John Grahame, second son of Malice, Earl of Mon- 
teith, commonlv surnamed John with the Bright Sword, 
upon some displeasure risen against him at court, retired 
with many of his clan and kindred into the English Bor- 
ders in the reign of king Henry the Fourth, where they 
seated themselves; and many of their posterity have 



46 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY. 



dwelt within five miles of Carlisle : he had 
a pretty house, and close by it a strong 



continued there ever since. Mr Sandford, speaking of 
them, says (which indeed was applicable to most of the 
Borderers on both sides,) f They were all stark moss- 
troupers, and arrant thieves : Both to England and Scot- 
land outlawed ; yet sometimes connived at, because they 
gave intelligence forth of Scotland, and would raise 400 
horse at any time upon a raid of the English into Scot- 
land. A saying is recorded of a mother to her son 
(which is now become proverbial) Rifle, Rowlie, hough's 
i' the pot: that is, the last piece of beef was in the pot, 
and therefore it was high time for him to go and fetch 
more." Introduction to the History of Cumberland. 

" The residence of the Graemes being chiefly in the 
Debateable Land, so called because it was claimed by 
both kingdoms, their depredations extended both to 
England and Scotland, with impunity ; for as both war- 
dens accounted them the proper subjects of their own 
prince, neither inclined to demand reparation for their 
excesses from the opposite officers, which would have 
been an acknowledgment of his jurisdiction over them. 
See a long correspondence on this subject betwixt Lord 
Dacre and the English Privy Council, in Introduction 
to History of Cumberland, The Debateable Land was 
finally divided betwixt England and Scotland by com- 
missioners appointed by both nations." The Graemes, 
after the accession of James VI. to the English throne, 
were, by a very summary exertion of power, transported 
to Ireland. E. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 47 

tower for his own defence in time of need.* 
I thought to surprise the Scots on a sud- 
den, and about two o'clock in the morning 
I took horse in Carlisle, and not above 
twenty-five in my company, thinking to 
surprise the house on a sudden. Before I 
could surround the house, the tw T o Scots 
were gotten into the strong tower, and I 
might see a boy riding from the house as 
fast as his horse could carry him ; I little 
suspecting what it meant. But Thomas 
Carleton came to me presently, and told 
me, that if I did not presently prevent it, 
both myself and all my company would be 
either slain, or taken prisoners. It was 
strange to me to hear this language. He 
then said to me, " Do you see that boy 
that rideth away so fast ? He will be in 
Scotland within this half hour ; and he is 
gone to let them know, that you are here, 
and to what end you are come, and the 



# This was probably Netherby Tower, which is still 
stand in 2. E. 



48 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

small number you have with you ; and that 
if they will make haste, on a sudden they 
may surprise us, and do with us what they 
please." Hereupon we took advice what 
was best to be done. We sent notice pre- 
sently to all parts to raise the country, and 
to come to us with all the speed they 
could ; and withal we sent to Carlisle to 
raise the townsmen ; for without foot we 
could do no good against the tower. There 
we staid some hours, expecting more com- 
pany ; and within short time after, the 
country came in on all sides, so that we 
were quickly between three and four hun- 
dred horse; and, after some little longer 
stay, the foot of Carlisle came to us, to the 
number of three or four hundred men ; 
whom we set presently at work, to get up 
to the top of the tower, and to uncover the 
roof; and then some twenty of them to 
fall down together, and by that means to 
win the tower. The Scots, seeing their pre- 
sent danger, offered to parley, and yielded 
themselves to my mercy. They had no 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 4Q 

sooner opened the iron gate, and yielded 
themselves my prisoners, but we might see 
four hundred horse within a quarter of a 
mile coming to their rescue, and to sur- 
prise me and my small company ; but of a 
sudden they stayed, and stood at gaze. 
Then had I more to do than ever ; for 
all our Borderers came crying with full 
mouths, " Sir, give us leave to set upon 
them ; for these are they that have killed 
our fathers, our brothers, our uncles, and 
our cousins ; and they are come, thinking to 
surprise you, upon weak grass nags, * such 
as they could get on a sudden ; and God 
hath put them into your hands, that we 
may take revenge of them for much blood 
that they have spilt of ours." I desired 
they would be patient awhile, and be- 
thought myself, if I should give them their 
wills, there would be few, or none of them, 
(the Scots) that would escape unkilled, 



# Horses taken up from grass, and unfit for hard ex- 
ercise. E. 



50 MEMOIRS OV ROBERT CARY, 

(there was so many deadly feuds among 
them,) and therefore I resolved with my- 
self, to give them a fair answer, but not to 
give them their desire. So I told them, 
that if I were not there myself, they might 
then do what pleased themselves ; but be- 
ing present, if I should give them leave, 
the blood that should be spilt that day 
would lie very heavy upon my conscience, 
and therefore I desired them, for my sake, 
to forbear ; and if the Scots did not pre- 
sently make away with all the speed they 
could upon my sending to them, they 
should then have their wills to do what 
they pleased. They were ill satisfied with 
my answer, but durst not disobey. I sent 
with speed to the Scots, and bade them 
pack away with all the speed they could ; 
for if they stayed the messenger's return, 
they should few of them return to their 
own home. They made no stay ; but they 
were turned homewards before the messen- 
ger had made an end of his message. Thus, 
by God's mercy, I escaped a great danger ; 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 51 

and, by my means, there were a great 
many men's lives saved that day. 

Not long after this, I married a gentle- 
woman, * more for her worth than her 
wealth ; for her estate was but five hundred 
pounds a-year jointure, and she had be- 
tween five and six hundred pounds in her 
purse. Neither did she marry me for any 
great wealth; for I had in all the world, 
but one hundred pounds a-year pension 
out of the exchequer, and that was but 
during pleasure, and I was near a thousand 
pounds in debt ; besides, the Queen was 
mightily offended with me for marrying, -f 
and most of my best friends ; only my fa- 
ther was no ways displeased at it, which 
gave me great content. 



* Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Hugh Trevannion. She 
was a widow when Mr Cary married her, but the name 
of her first husband is no where mentioned. 

f This was a well-known and remarkable feature of 
the Queen's character. She considered all her courtiers 
as her adorers, and the marriage of any of them was 
therefore an affronting act of infidelity. E. 



52 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

After I was married, I brought my wife 
to Carlisle, where we were so nobly used 
by my Lord, * that myself, my wife, and 
all my servants, were lodged in the castle, 
where we lived with him, and had our diet 
for ourselves, our servants and horses, pro- 
vided for as his own were. We had not 
long lived thus, but a sudden occasion cal- 
led me up to the term, which then was at 
St Albans, by reason of a great plague that 
year at London, the Queen lying then at 
Windsor. The cause was as followeth : 

There was an old gentleman in Suffolk, 
that had an old wife, his name was Gardi- 
ner ; they were childless. This man, in re- 
compense of some favour my father had 
done him, (after his own life and his wife's,) 
made an estate of a lordship of his called 
Colombine-hall, in Suffolk, to my brother 



* Thomas Lord Scroop, who succeeded his father in 
the government of the castle at Carlisle. Orrery. 

Both his father and he are famous in Border song and 
tradition. E. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 55 

William and his heirs jnale, and for want 
thereof, to me and my heirs male, and for 
want thereof, to my father and his heirs for 
ever. 

My brother marries, and, by fraudulent 
means, privately cuts me off from the in- 
tail, and by the consent of Gardiner and 
his wife, makes his own wife a jointure of 
this lordship. My brother dies without 
children. Then came it out that this land 
was given in jointure to his wife. I com- 
menced suit of law with her ; my eldest 
brother took her part, by reason that if she 
had prevailed, after her life the law had 
cast the land upon him. My sister-in-law 
and I had proceeded so far in Chancery, 
that the cause was to be heard and de- 
cided that Michaelmas term at St Albans. 
Those that I put in trust to follow my law 
business, wrote to me in plain words, that 
neither they nor any body else durst fol- 
low the cause, they were so bitterly threat- 
ened by my brothers agent, who did as- 
sure them my brother would be there him- 



54 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

self, to see that his sister-in-law should have 
no wrong, and then they should see who 
durst appear to contradict him. Thus did 
my brother, by his power, mean to over- 
throw my right in my absence ; for he as- 
sured himself I durst not come too near the 
court, having so lately offended the Queen, 
and the most of my friends, by my mar- 
riage. But he was deceived ; for I having 
heard this b} r my servant, that I put in 
trust to follow my business, I presently re- 
solved to come to St Albans, and to do my 
best to defend my own cause. I had not 
been there two days, but in the lodging 
where I lay, my brothers man came in to 
take up a lodging for his master. I asked 
him where my brother was ? He told me 
he was within two miles of the town, and 
was come expressly out of the Isle of 
Wight, for no other cause, but a business 
in law, wherein he made sure account to 
overthrow his adversary that term ; but 
against whom it was he knew not. He 
took horse again, after he had provided a 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 55 

lodging, to meet his master. He met him 
not a mile from the town, and told him 
that he had found me there, and that I lay 
same house that he was to lie in. 
at this news was much trou- 
x musing with himself a good 
ist, of a sudden, he turned his 
nead, and came not at all to St Al- 
ts, but went to Windsor, and trusted 
ohers to follow the cause. My cause was 
so just, that I ended the business that 
term, overthrew my sisters jointure, and 
had the land settled as it was in statu quo 
prius. 

Having ended my business, I meant to 
return to Carlisle again. My father wrote 
to me from Windsor, that the Queen meant 
to have a great triumph there, on her coro- 
nation day, 1593, and that there was great 
preparation making for the course of the 
field and tourney. * He gave me notice of 



# Plays, masks, triumphs, and tournaments, which 
the author calls tourneys, were small branches of those 



56 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

the Queen's anger for my marriage, and 
said it may be, I being so near, and to re- 
turn without honouring her day, as I ever 
before had done, might be a cause of her 
further dislike, but left it to myself to do 
what I thought best. My business of law 
therefore being ended, I came to court, 
and lodged there very privately; only I 
made myself known to my father and some 
few friends besides. I here took order, and 
sent to London to provide me things ne- 
cessary for the triumph : I prepared a 
present for her Majesty, which, with my 
caparisons, cost me above four hundred 
pounds. I came into the triumph unknown 
of any. I was the forsaken knight that 
had vowed solitariness, but, hearing of this 
great triumph, thought to honour my mis- 
tress with my best service, and then to re- 



many spreading allurements which Elizabeth made use 
of, to draw to herself the affections and the admiration 
of her subjects. She appeared at them with dignity, 
ease, grace, and affability. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 57 

turn to pay my wonted mourning. The 
triumph ended, and all things well passed 
over to the Queen's * liking. I then made 
myself known in court ; and for the time 
I stayed there, was daily conversant with 
my old companions and friends ; but it so 
fell out, that I made no long stay there : 
it was upon this occasion. 

My brother, Sir John Cary, that was 
then Marshal of Berwick, was sent to by 
the King of Scots, to desire him that he 
would meet his Majesty at the bound road 
at a day appointed ; for, that he had a 
matter of great importance to acquaint his 
sister the Queen of England withal; but 



# The Queen was undoubtedly advertised, that her 
forsaken knight (for such indeed he was) had issued 
forth from his solitariness to bask himself in the sun- 
shine of her luminous countenance, and to gather cou- 
rage and prowess from the beams of her bright eyes. 
Nothing, not even trifles, passed abroad or at home, 
with which she was not acquainted. But as she had no 
immediate occasion for the service of Sir Robert Cary, 
her Majesty was determined still to continue the out 
ward show of her resentment, till she wanted him. 



58 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

he would not trust the Queen's ambassa- 
dor with it, nor any other, unless it were 
my father, or some of his children. My 
brother sent him word he would gladly 
wait on his Majesty, but durst not until he 
had acquainted the Queen therewith ; and 
when he had received her answer, he would 
acquaint him with it. My brother sent 
notice to my father of the King's desire. 
My father shewed the letter to the Queen. 
She was not willing that my brother should 
stir out of the town ;* but knowing, though 
she would not know, that I was in court, 
she said, " I hear your fine son, that has 
lately married so worthily, is hereabouts ; 
send him, if you will, to know the King's 
pleasure/' My father answered, he knew 
I would be glad to obey her commands. 
" No," said she, " do you bid him go, for 



f The town of Berwick, from whence the Queen 
would not have him stir, because she did not deem him 
to be a proper messenger, knowing there was a better 
within cail. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 59 

I have nothing to do with him." * My fa- 
ther came and told me what had passed 
between them. I thought it hard to be 
sent, and not to see her ; but my father told 
me plainly, that she would neither speak 
with me, nor see me. " Sir," said I, " if 
she be on such hard terms with me, I had 
need be wary what I do. If I go to the 
King without her license, it were in her 
power to hang me-f- at my return ; and, for 
any thing I see, it were ill trusting her/' 
My father merrily went to the Queen, and 
told her what I said. She answered, " if 
the gentleman be so mistrustful, let the Se- 
cretary make a safe conduct to go and 
come, and I will sign it." Upon these 
terms I parted from court, and made all 
the haste for Scotland. I stayed but one 



* Still maintaining her dignity, yet impatient to have 
him go. 

f By this expression may be seen the terror in which 
this mighty princess governed her subjects. By the un- 
reiaxed tightness with which she grasped the reins of 
government, she was at once beloved and feared. 



60 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

night with my wife at Carlisle, and then to 
Berwick, and so to Edinburgh, where it 
pleased the King to use me very gracious- 
ly : and after three or four days spent in 
sport and merriment, he acquainted me 
with what he desired the Queen should 
know ; which, when I understood, J said 
to his Majesty, " Sir, between subject and 
subject, a message may be sent and deli- 
vered without any danger ; between two so 
great monarchs as your Majesty and my 
Mistress, I dare not trust my memory to 
be a relator, but must desire you would be 
pleased to write your mind to her. If you 
shall think fit to trust me with it, I shall 
faithfully discharge the trust reposed in 
me." He liked the motion, and said it 
should be so, and accordingly I had my 
dispatch within four days. * 



# The purport of this interview with James VI. does 
not appear, James was, in 1693, greatly embarrassed 
with Bothwellon the one hand, and the Catholic Earls of 
Huntly and Errol on the other. Probably the conference 
regarded some request of assistance from England. E. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 61 

I made all the haste I could to court, 
which was then at Hampton Court. I ar- 
rived there on St Steven's day in the af- 
ternoon. Dirty as I was, I came into the 
presence, where I found the lords and la- 
dies dancing. The Queen was not there. 
My father went to the Queen, to let her 
know that I was returned. She willed him 
to take my message or letters, and bring 
them to her. He came for them, but I de- 
sired him to excuse me ; for that which I 
had to say, either by word, or by writing, 
I must deliver myself : I could neither 
trust him, nor much less any other there- 
with. He acquainted her Majesty with 
my resolution. With much ado, I was 
called for in; and I was left alone with 
her. Our first encounter was stormy and 
terrible, which I passed over with silence. 
After she had spoken her pleasure of me 
and my wife, I told her, that " she herself 
was the fault of my marriage, and that if 
she had but graced me with the least of 
her favours, I had never left her, nor her 



62 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

court ; and seeing she was the chief catise 
of my misfortune, I would never off my 
knees till I had kissed her hand, and ob- 
tained my pardon/' She was not displea- 
sed with my excuse, and before we parted 
we grew good friends. Then I delivered 
my message and my papers, which she 
took very well, and at last gave me thanks 
for the pains I had taken. So having her 
princely word, that she had pardoned and 
forgotten all faults, I kissed her hand, and 
came forth to the presence, and was in the 
court, as I was ever before. * 



# The firmness with which Mr Cary weathered out 
this storm, evidently shews in what a school, and under 
what a mistress, he had been bred. He well knew, that 
the curious desire of the Queen to be fully informed of 
every particular .relating to the King of Scots, must, af- 
ter a certain degree of assumed passion, turn into a pro- 
per calm, proper at least for hearing his sentiments, if 
not for expressing some of her own. The effects of his 
judgment were fully answered ; and certainly his judg- 
ment never appeared more conspicuous, than from the 
beginning to the end of the scene which he has ex- 
hibited upon this occasion. . 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 63 

This God did for me, to bring me in fa- 
vour with my sovereign ; for if this occa- 
sion had been slipt, it may be I should ne- 
ver, never, have seen her face more. 

After I had stayed all Christmas, till al- 
most Shrovetide* I took leave of her Ma- 
jesty, and all the rest of my friends, and 
made straight for Carlisle. I continued there 
till the midst of May, still busying myself 
with the affairs of the Borders, at which 
time my wife was brought to bed of a 
daughter. 

Shortly after, some of my Lord Scroop's 
officers were at a difference with me about 
Border-causes. My Lord, as I conceived, 
was more favourable on their sides than 
mine, whereupon I resolved not to con- 
tinue his deputy any longer. We parted 
on very good terms ; and about six weeks 
after my daughter was born, my wife and 
I took our leaves of him, and came to Wi- 
therington, which was her jointure. There 
we stayed till towards the spring the next 



64 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

year ; and having no employment, I re- 
solved to repair again to the court. 

My wife was by this time again with 
child. We set out from Witherington, and 
by easy journeys we got to London. My 
father having the keeping of Arundel- 
house, I got lodging in it for myself, my 
wife, and my servants. I went daily to 
court, and passed the time as merrily as I 
had done before. I had not been there 
long, but I was a suitor to my father for 
the reversion of Norham Castle, which 
he willingly granted, so I could get the 
Queen's consent. * After I understood his 
pleasure, I proceeded no further in it, till 
I had written to my brother John, who was 
Marshal of Berwick, for his good will, who 
had then one hundred pounds of mine out 
of the domains of Norham, as a gift from 
my father. He, when he understood my 



* Norham Castle and its demesnes were the proper- 
ty of the crown, but were leased out to any well deser- 
ving subject. The lessee was also captain or governor 
of the castle. E. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 65 

meaning, did what he could to hinder me 
of it, and made his means to old Bur- 
leigh, * who moved the Queen not to grant 
the reversion without my brother's consent. 
♦He wrought so with her, as her answer to 
me was, that, till I satisfied my brother 
John, she would not grant my suit. I 
knew it was to no purpose to deal any fur- 
ther in it, till I had spoken with my bro- 
ther, and given him satisfaction to his con- 
tent, and therefore deferred it till I return- 
ed to the North. By this time my wife 
grew something big; and by reason she 
could not well agree with the air of Lon- 
don, I went with her to a place called Den- 
ham, hard by Ux bridge, and there she 
staid till she was brought to bed of a boy, 
which was about the midst of January. 



* William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, was at this time near 
his end. Gouty in his limbs, infirm in his health, politic 
still in his head. Wise and wary to his last moments; 
unwilling to suffer the least grant to be made that in 
any wise might reflect on the Queen's honour and jus- 
tice. 



66 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

Not long after this, Sir John Selby, who 
was deputy warden for my father of the 
East March, died, and then my father cal- 
led me to him, and told me if I would ac- 
cept of the place, he would put me in pos* 
session of Norham ; paying to my brother 
one hundred pounds per annum as he had 
done before. I willingly accepted of his 
offer, and prepared myself for the journey, 
and left my wife and her children at Den- 
ham, till she had gathered more strength, 
and was fit for travel. The first thing I 
did, was to agree with my brother for his 
good will for Norham, which I bought at 
a dear rate ; for I continued to pay him 
one hundred pounds a-year as long as he 
continued Marshal of Berwick, and besides 
I gave him my interest of a lease which was 
worth six hundred pounds a-year, which 
should have fallen to me if I had survived 
him. Having perfected this agreement, 
my brother acqainted my Lord Treasurer 
therewithal. When the Queen knew there- 
of, she was pleased to grant me the rever- 

2 



EARL OV MONMOUTH, 67 

sion of the captainship of Norham after 
my father s death, who had given me the 
possession of it in his lifetime. 

Having thus ended with my brother, I 
then began to think of the charge I had 
taken upon me, which was the government 
of the East March in my father's absence. 
I wrote to Sir Robert Car, * who was my 
opposite warden, a brave, active young 
man, and desired him that he would ap- 
point a day when he and myself might pri- 
vately meet in some part of the Border, to 
take some good order for the quieting the 
Borders, till my return from London, which 
journey I was shortly of necessity to take. 
He staid my man all night, and wrote to 
me back, that he was glad to have the 
happiness to be acquainted with me, and 
did not doubt but the country would be 



* Sir Robert Ker of Cessford, ancestor of the ducal 
bouse of Roxburghe. Lord Orrery, in a note upon the 
passage in the former edition, confounded him with Sir 
Thomas Ker of Ferni heist, ancestor of the Lothian fa- 
mily, and father of Robert Car, Earl of Somerset. E. 



68 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

the better governed by our good agree- 
ments. I wrote to him on the Monday, 
and the Thursday after he appointed the 
place and hour of meeting. 

After he had filled my man with drink, 
and put him to bed, he and some half a 
score with him got to horse, and came into 
England to a little village. There he broke 
up a house, and took out a poor fellow, 
who, he pretended, had done him some 
wrong, and before the door cruelly mur- 
dered him, and so came quietly home, and 
went to bed. The next morning he deli- 
vered my man a letter in answer to mine, 
and returned him to me. It pleased me 
well at the reading of his kind letter; but 
when I heard what a brave he had put 
upon me, I quickly resolved what to do, 
which was, never to have to do with him 
till I was righted for the great wrong he 
had done me. Upon this resolution, the 
day I should have met with him, I took 
post, and with all the haste I could, rode 
to London, leaving him to attend my com- 






EARL OF MONMOUTH. 69 

ing to him as was appointed. There he 
staid from one till five, but heard no news 
of me. Finding by this that I had ne- 
glected him, he returned home to his house ; 
and so things rested (with great dislike the 
one of the other) till 'I came back, which 
was with all the speed I could, my busi- 
ness being ended. The first thing I did 
after my return, was to ask justice for the 
wrong he had done me, but I could get 
none. The Borderers seeing our disagree- 
ment, they thought the time wished for of 
them was come. The winter being begun, 
there was roads made out of Scotland into 
the East March, and goods were taken 
three or four times a week. I had no other 
means left to quiet them, but still sent out 
of the garrison horsemen of Berwick to 
watch in the fittest places for them ; and it 
was their good hap many times to light 
upon them with the stolen goods driving 
before them. They were no sooner brought 
before me, but a jury went upon them, 
and, being found guilty, they were present- 



70 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

ly hanged. A course which hath been sel- 
dom used, but I had no way to keep the 
country quiet but to do so ; for when the 
Scots thieves found what a sharp course I 
took with them that were found with the 
bloody hand, I had in a short time the 
country more quiet. All this while we were 
but in jest as it were, but now began the 
great quarrel between us. 

There was a favourite of his, * a great 
thief, called Giordie Bourne. This gallant, 
with some of his associates, would, in a 
bravery, cpme and take goods in the East 
March. I had that night some of the gar- 
rison abroad. They met with this Giordie 
and his fellows, driving of cattle before 
them. The garrison set upon them, and 
with a shot killed Giordie Bourne's uncle, 
and he himself, bravely resisting, till he 
was sore hurt in the head, was taken. Af- 
ter he was taken, his pride was such, as he 

* Sir Robert Car's. 



EAltL OF MONMOUTH. 71 

asked, who it was that durst avow that 
night's work ? But when he heard it was the 
garrison, he was then more quiet. But so 
powerful and awful was this Sir Robert Car 
and his favourites, as there was not a gen- 
tleman in all the East March that durst of- 
fend them. Presently after he was taken, 
I had most of the gentlemen of the March 
come to me, and told me, that now I had 
the ball at my foot, and might bring Sir 
Robert Car to what condition I pleased ; 
for that this man's life was so near and dear 
unto him, as I should have all that my 
heart could desire for the good and quiet 
of the country and myself, if upon any 
condition I would give him his life. I 
heard them and their reasons ; notwith- 
standing, I called a jury the next morn- 
ing, and he was found guilty of March- 
treason. * Then they feared that I would 
cause him to be executed that afternoon, 

* Border-treason, of which there were several kinds. E. 



72 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

which made them come flocking to me, 
humbly intreating me that I would spare 
his life till the next day ; and if Sir Robert 
Car came not himself to me, and made me 
not such proffers as I could not but accept, 
that then I should do with him what I 
pleased. And further, they told me plain- 
ly, that if I should execute him before I had 
heard from Sir Robert Car, they must be 
forced to quit their houses, and fly the 
country ; for his fury would be such against 
me and the March I commanded, as he 
would use all his power and strength to 
the utter destruction of the East March. 
They were so earnest with me, that I gave 
them my word he should not die that day. 
There was post upon post sent to Sir Ro- 
bert Car ; and some of them rode to him 
themselves to advertise him in what dan- 
ger Giordie Bourne was : how he was con- 
demned, and should have been executed 
that afternoon, but, by their humble suit, 
I gave them my word, that he should not 
die that day ; and therefore besought hini 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 73 

that he would send to me with all the 
speed he could, to let me know that he 
would be the next day with me, to offer me 
good conditions for the safety of his life. 
When all things were quiet, and the watch 
set at night, after supper, about ten of the 
clock, I took one of my men's liveries, and 
put it about me, and took two other of 
my servants with me in their liveries, and 
we three, as the Warden's men, came to 
the Provost Marshal's, where Bourne was, 
and were let into his chamber. We sat 
down by him, and told him that we were 
desirous to see him, because we heard he 
was stout and valiant, and true to his 
friend ; and that we were sorry our master 
could not be moved to save his life. He 
voluntarily of himself said, that he had 
lived long enough to do so many villanies 
as he had done ; and withal told us, that 
he had lain with above forty men's wives, 
what in England, what in Scotland ; and 
that he had killed seven Englishmen with 
his own hands, cruelly murdering them: 



74 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

that he had spent his whole time in who- 
ring, drinking, stealing, and taking deep re- 
venge for slight offences. He seemed to 
be very penitent, and much desired a mi- 
nister for the comfort of his soul. We pro- 
mised him to let our master know his de- 
sire, who, we knew, would presently grant 
it. We took our leaves of him ; and pre- 
sently I took order, that Mr Selby, a very 
worthy honest preacher, should go to him, 
and not stir from him till his execution the 
next morning : for, after I Had heard his 
own confession, I was resolved no condi- 
tions should save his life ; and so took or- 
der, that, at the gates opening the next 
morning, he should be carried to execu- 
tion, which accordingly was performed.* 



* Until the death of Queen Elizabeth, the kingdom 
of England had not the benefit of an island. The neigh- 
bourhood of Scotland made England sensible of many 
of the inconveniences that are felt by neighbouring 
kingdoms on the continent. Mr Cary's Memoirs very 
circumstantially relate some of the blackest deeds of the 
most turbulent Borderers, of which this account of Gior- 
die [George] Bourne, is a most conspicuous example. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 75 

The next morning I had one from Sir Ro- 
bert Car for a parley, who was within two 
miles staying for me. I sent him word, 
" I would meet him where he pleased, but 
I would first know upon what terms and 
conditions/' Before his man was returned, 
he had heard, that in the morning very 
early Giordie Bourne had been executed. 
Many vows he made of cruel revenge, and 
returned home full of grief and disdain, 
and from that time forwards still plotted 
revenge. He knew the gentlemen of the 
country were altogether sackless ; * and to 
make open road upon the March, would 
but shew his malice, and lay him open to 
the punishment due to such offences. But 
his practice was how to be revenged on me, 
or some of mine. 

It was not long after that my brother 
and I had intelligence, that there was a 



* Sackless i& an obsolete term, signifying innocent. 
It often occurs in the Border laws, with which Sir Ro- 
bert Cary was very conversant. E. 



76 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

great match made at foot-ball, and the 
chief riders were to be there. The place 
they were to meet at was Shelsy, * and that 
day we heard it was the day for the meet- 
ing. We presently called a council, and 
after much dispute, it was concluded, that 
the likeliest place he was to come to, was 
to kill the scouts, -f And it was the more 
suspected, for that my brother, before my 
coming to the office, for cattle stolen out 
of the bounds, and as it were from under 
the walls of Berwick, being refused justice 
upon his complaint, or at least delayed, 
sent of the garrison into Liddisdale, and 
killed there the chief offender which had 
done the wrong. 

Upon this conclusion, there was order 
taken, that both horse and foot should lie 



* Kelso. E. 

f Every night, in these troublesome times, centinels, 
called scouts, were placed to watch the fords of the Tweed 
and other passes, by which the marauders used to make 
inroads into England. In the first edition, the word is 
nonsensically corrupted into Scottes. E. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 77 

in ambush in diverse parts of the bounds 
to defend the scouts, and to give a sound 
blow to Sir Robert, and his company. Be- 
fore the horse and foot were set out with 
directions what to do, it was almost dark 
night, and the gates ready to be locked. We 
parted ; and I was, by myself, coming to 
my house : God put it into my mind, that 
it might well be, he meant destruction to 
my men, that I had sent out to gather tithes 
for me at Norham ; and their rendezvous 
was every night to lie and sup at an ale- 
house in Norham. * I presently caused 
my page to take horse, and to ride as fast 
as his horse could carry him, and to com- 
mand my servants, (which were in all, 
eight,) that presently upon his coming to 
them, they should all change their lodging, 
and go straight to the castle, there to lie 
that night in straw and hay. Some of them 
were unwilling thereto, but durst not dis- 



* Cary, it must be remembered, had a lease of Nor- 
ham from the crown. E. 



78 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

obey ; so all together left their ale-house, 
and retired to the castle. They had not 
well settled themselves to sleep, but they 
heard in the town a great alarm ; for Sir 
Robert and his company came straight to 
the ale-house, broke open the doors, and 
made enquiry for my servants. They were 
answered, that, by my command, they were 
all in the castle, After they had searched 
all the house, and found none, they feared 
they were betrayed, and with all the speed 
they could made haste homewards again. 
Thus God blessed me from this bloody tra- 
gedy. 

All the whole March expected nightly 
some hurt to be done ; but God so blessed 
me, and the government I held, as, for all 
his (Sir Robert Car s) fury, he never drew 
drop of blood in all my March, neither 
durst his. thieves trouble it much with steal- 
ing, for fear of hanging if they were taken. 
Thus we continued a year, and then God 
sent a means to bring things to better quiet 
by this occasion. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 79 

There had been commissioners in Ber- 
wick, chosen by our Queen, and the King of 
Scots, for the better quieting of the Bor- 
ders. * By their industry, they found a 
great number of malefactors guilty, both in 
England and Scotland ; and they took or- 
der, that the officers of Scotland should de- 
liver such offenders as were found guilty 
in their jurisdictions to the opposite officers 
in England, to be detained prisoners, till 
they had made satisfaction for the goods 
they had taken out of England. The like 
order was taken with the wardens of Eng- 
land, and days prefixed for the delivery of 
them all. And in case any of the officers 
on either side should omit their duties, in 
not delivering the prisoners at the days and 
places appointed, that then there should a 



* The English commissioners were, the Bishop of 
Durham, Sir Robert Bowes, Francis Slingsby, and Dr 
Colmer. Those for James were, the Bishop of Dun- 
keld, Sir George Home of Wedderburne, Ker of Paw- 
donside, and Young, archdeacon of St Andrews. They 
met at Carlisle about the end of 1596. & 



80 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

course be taken by the sovereigns, that 
what chief officer soever should offend 
herein, he himself should be delivered and 
detained, till he had made good what the 
commissioners had agreed upon. 

The English officers did punctually, at 
the day and place, deliver their prisoners, 
and so did most of the officers of Scotland ; 
only the Lord of Bocleugh * and Sir Ro- 
bert Car were faulty. They were complain- 
ed of, and new days appointed for the de- 
livery of their prisoners. Bocleugh was the 
first that should deliver, and he failing, en- 
tered himself prisoner into Berwick, there 
to remain till those officers under his charge 
were delivered to free him. -f- He chose for 



* Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, who had lately dis- 
tinguished himself by various incursions on the English 
west Borders, particularly by breaking into Carlisle Cas- 
tle for the release of a Scottish prisoner called Kinmont 
Willie. E. 

f Cessford was about to have surrendered himself 
at the same time with Buccleuch, but the accidental dis- 
charge of a pistol excited the suspicion of treachery on 
the part of the Governor of Berwick, who had come to 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 81 

his guardian Sir William Selby* master of 
the ordnance at Berwick. When Sir Ro- 
bert Cars day of delivery came, he failed 
too, and my Lord Hume, by the King's 
command, was to deliver him prisoner into 
Berwick upon the like terms, which was 
performed. Sir Robert Car, contrary to all 
men's expectations, chose me for his guar- 
dian, and home I brought him to my own 
house after he was delivered to me. I 
lodged him as well as I could, and took 
order for his diet, and men to attend on 
him ; and sent him word, that (although by 
his harsh carriage towards me, ever since I 
had that charge, he could not expect any 
favour, yet) hearing so much goodness of 
him* that he never broke his word ; if he 
would give me his hand and credit to be a 
true prisoner, he should have no guard set 
upon him, but have free liberty for his 
friends in Scotland, to have ingress and re- 



receive him, and the conference was broke np in confu- 
sion. E. 



82 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

gress to him as oft as he pleased. He took 
this very kindly at my hands, accepted of 
my offer, and sent me thanks. 

Some four days passed ; all which time 
his friends came unto him, and he kept his 
chamber. Then he sent to me, and desired 
me I would come and speak with him, 
which I did ; and after long discourse, 
charging and recharging one another with 
wrong and inj uries, at last, before our parting, 
we became good friends, with great protes- 
tations on his side, never to give me occa- 
sion of unkindness again. After our recon- 
ciliation, he kept his chamber no longer, 
but dined and supped with me. I took 
him abroad with me, at the least thrice a- 
week, a-hunting, and every day we grew 
better friends. Bocleugh, in few days after, 
had his pledges delivered, and was set at 
liberty. But Sir Robert Car could not get 
his, so that I was commanded to carry him 
to York, and there to deliver him prisoner to 
the archbishop, which accordingly I did. * 



* There is extant a letter from the archbi&hop to the 
l 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 83 

At our parting he professed great love un- 
to me for the kind usage I had shown him, 
and that I should find the effects of it up- 
on his delivery, which he hoped would be 
shortly. 

Thus we parted ; and, not long after, his 
pledges were got, and brought to York, 
and he set at liberty. After his return 
home, I found him as good as his word. 
We met oft at days of truce, and I had as 
good justice as I could desire ; and so we 
continued very kind and good friends all 



lord-treasurer, respecting the mode of keeping his hos- 
tages. 

" I understand," saith he, " that the gentleman is wise 
and valiant, but somewhat haughty here, and resolute. 
I would pray your lordship, that I may have directions 
whether he may not go with his keeper in my company, 
to sermons; and whether he may not sometimes dine 
with the council, as the last hostages did ; and, thirdly, 
whether he may sometimes be brought to sitting to the 
common-hall, where he may see how careful her majes- 
ty is that the poorest subject in her kingdom may have 
their right, and that her people seek remedy bylaw, and 
not by avenging themselves. Perhaps it may do him 
good as long as he liveth." E. 



84 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

the time that I stayed in that March, 
which was not long. 

For presently after this my father died ; 
and I had letters sent down from Secretary 
Cecill, that it was her Majesty's pleasure I 
should continue as absolute warden in my 
father's place, until her further pleasure 
were known. I continued so about a twelve- 
month, and lived at my own charge, which 
impaired my poor estate very much. In 
this time God sent me another son, which 
was born and christened at Berwick. I 
did often solicit Mr Secretary for some al- 
lowance to support me in my place, but 
could get no direct answer. I sued for 
leave to come up myself, but could get 
none. The March was very quiet, and all 
things in good order, and I adventured 
without leave to come up. 

The Queen lay at Theobalds, and early 
in a morning I came thither. I first went 
to Mr Secretary, who was much troubled 
when he saw me, and by no means could I 
get him to let the Queen know that I was 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 85 

there, but counselled me to return, that she 
might never know what I had done. When 
I could do no good with him, I went to 
my brother, who then was chamberlain, 
after my Lord Cobham's death. I found 
him far worse than the other ; and I had 
no way to save myself from some great dis- 
grace, but to return without her know- 
ledge of my being there ; for, by no in- 
treaty could I get him to acquaint her with 
it. I was much troubled, and knew no 4 , 
well what to do. The Queen w r ent that 
day to dinner to Enfield-house ; and had 
toiles set up in the park to shoot at bucks 
after dinner. I durst not be seen by her, 
these two counsellers had so terrified me. 
But after dinner, I went to Enfield ; and 
walking solitary in a very private place, 
exceeding melancholy, it pleased God to 
send Mr William Killigrew, one of the pri- 
vy-chamber, to pass by where I was walk- 
ing, who saluted me very kindly, and bade 
me welcome. I answered him very kindly; 
and he perceiving me very sad, and some- 



86 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

thing troubled, asked me why I was so ? I 
told him the reason. He made little reck- 
oning of what they had said to me, but 
bade me comfort myself, for he would go 
presently to the Queen, and tell her of my 
coming up, on such a fashion, as he did 
warrant me, she would take it well, and 
bid me welcome. Away he went, and I 
stayed for his return. He told the Queen, 
that she was more beholden to one man, 
than to many other, that made greater 
show of their love and service. She was 
desirous to know who it was. He told her 
it was myself; who, not having seen her 
for a twelvemonth and more, could no 
longer endure to be deprived of so great a 
happiness ; * but took post with all speed 



* This dexterous turn placed Cary's journey in a view- 
quite irresistible. Her courtiers understood well how to 
play upon the Queen's passion for general admiration. 
In the Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, there is an admira- 
ble letter, describing his affectation of fury, at being de- 
barred the sight of his Queen and goddess as she passed 
in a barge by the Tower, in which he lay prisoner. It 
is obviously calculated for the Queen's eye, and proba- 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 87 

to come up to see your Majesty, and to 
kiss your hand, and so to return instantly 
again. She presently sent him back for 
me, and received me with more grace and 
favour than ever she had done before ; and 
after I had been with her a pretty while, 
she was called for to go to her sports. She 
arose, I took her by the arm, and led her 
to her standing. My brother and Mr Se- 
cretary seeing this, thought it more than a 
miracle. She continued her favour to me 
the time I stayed, which was not long ; for 
she took order, I should have five hundred 
pounds out of the Exchequer, for the time 
I had served ; and I had a patent given 
me, under the great seal, to be her warden 
of the East March. And thus was I pre- 
served by a pretty jest, when wise men 
thought I had wrought my own wrack. For 
out of weakness, God can shew strength, 



bly, as in the present case, had its usual mollifying con- 
sequences, E. 



88 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

and his goodness was never wanting to me 
in any extremity. 

With grace and favour I returned to my 
charge again : yet, before my return, the 
Queen was pleased to renew my grant of 
Norham, with the life of both my sons, 
and the longer liver of us. I was not long 
settled in my office, but there fell out a 
new occasion to remove me ; which was, 
that my Lord of Willoughby * (who was 
newly come from travel) was made Go- 
vernor of Berwick, -f and the East March 



* Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby of Eresby. He 
had made a considerable figure in the wars of the Low 
Countries, and in France, where he had passed through 
all the offices of a commander. He was a military no- 
bleman of a very bright character. He died in the year 
J601. 

f The last town in England ; the barrier between the 
two British kingdoms. Often taken, retaken, sold, pawn- 
ed, and exchanged, both by the English and Scots. 
From the time of Edward IV., entirely in the hands of 
the English. Queen Elizabeth, ever jealous of her Scot- 
tish neighbours, reduced the town to a less size, and 
augmented the fortifications. — " Be it also remember- 
ed," says Camden in his Britannia, " that the governor 
of this place was always a person of the greatest emi- 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 89 

did properly belong to the governor there. 
He came down with full commission for 
both places, so that I was now to seek what 
course of life to take. Being at liberty, up 
came I to court, where long I did not 
stay ; but new occasion was offered me to 
continue a Northern man still. 

Sir John Foster, * who had been an ac r 
tive and valiant man, and had done great 
good service in the Middle March, (of 
which place he had been long warden,) 
grew at length to that weakness, by reason 
of his age, that the Borderers knowing it, 
grew insolent, and, by reason of their many 
excursions and open roads, the inhabitants 
of that March were much weakened and 
impoverished, so that they were no longer 
able to subsist without present help. The 



nence among the English nobility, and was also warden 
of these eastern marches." See Dr Gibson's Camden's 
Britannia, Vol. II. page 1099* 

* A knight of considerable possessions in Northum- 
berland. The family, according to Camden, were ori- 
ginally of Berkshire. 



90 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

Queen and council were informed thereof. 
To remedy this inconvenience, they made 
choice of a worthy nobleman, my Lord 
Euers, * to supply Sir John Foster's place ; 
and to enable him the better, he was allow- 
ed one hundred horsemen out of York- 
shire, to be disposed of at his pleasure, for 
the better quieting of the country. He 
came into his office with great joy and 
comfort for the poor inhabitants of the 
March, and to the terror and fear of the 
malefactors, expecting their utter ruin. But 
it oft falls out, that seldom comes a better : 
for although his Lordship did carefully 
employ his whole endeavour for the good 
of the March, and the destroying of male- 
factors, yet, by trusting too much to men 
that he thought honest and faithful to him, 
he was deceived and abused ; for, for all 
his hundred horsemen, and his desire to 



•j- The son of Sir William Eure, who was created an 
English Baron by King Henry VIII. The family is ex- 
tinct. Ralph, Lord Eure, the last of the title, died in 
1707. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 91 

have the country well governed, yet he 
had not long been there, but the thieves 
were freed of their fear, and the poor inha- 
bitants in worse case than ever. And to 
be short, the whole five years that he re- 
mained there, every year grew worse and 
worse ; that none flourished but malefac- 
tors, who did what they listed, and harried 
and spoiled whole townships at their plea- 
sure ; so that the poor inhabitants were 
ready to fly their country, and to leave it 
waste. The Queen and council were in- 
formed thereof, and my Loi;d himself made 
suite to leave his place, seeing himself abu- 
sed by his officers whom he trusted, and 
could not tell how to help it. 

About this time, I had resigned my of- 
fice of the East March to my Lord Wil- 
loughby, and was at court. Mr Secretary 
sent for me to his chamber, and was de- 
sirous to know of me, whether I would ac- 
cept it, if the Queen would confer on me 
the warden of the Middle March ? I said 
to him, I was a stranger to the country, 



92 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

and had a small acquaintance in it, and 
the March was much weakened and spoil- 
ed : yet, upon good conditions, it might be 
I would accept it. He assured me, that 
my demands should be very unreasonable 
if they were refused ; and that I should be 
sure to have a hundred horse, as my Lord 
Euers had, and if I desired more, he did 
not doubt but the Queen would grant 
them. I desired two days time to give my 
answer, which was granted. After I had 
conferred with my friends, and resolved 
what to do, I came to him, and told him, 
that, although I knew all things were out 
of order in the Middle March, and that the 
thieves did domineer, and do what they 
pleased, and that the poor inhabitants were 
utterly disenabled and overthrown, yet was 
I not desirous to put the Queen and coun- 
try to greater charge than was fitting : 
and whereas his Lordship offered me more 
soldiers than my Lord Euers had, I did 
not desire so many ; but, if I might be al- 
lowed but forty horsemen, and they to be 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 93 

my own servants, and resident with me in 
my own house, I would put the Queen 
and country to no more charge, and would 
accept of the place. * He was much ama- 
zed at my small demand, and went presently 
to the Queen to acquaint her therewith. I 
had my demand granted, my commission 
with all speed signed, and I was sent down 
to execute my office. 

I was no sooner come down,* but I re- 
moved my wife, children, and household, 
to Alnwick Abbey, f which was in the 
Mid March ; the house where Sir John 
Foster ever lived when he was warden. 
The first thing I did, after I was settled in 



* Such an instance of moderation and frugality to- 
wards the public, must be extremely acceptable to Queen 
Elizabeth. She lost not a moment's time in rewarding 
a servant who made so small a demand. The Queen 
was perfectly frugal of the revenue of the crown. Mr 
Cary wisely followed her Majesty's example. 

•j- Alnwick Abbey belonged to a monastery, built in 
the town of Alnwick, (or, as pronounced, Anwick,) by 
the family of the Vescies, in the year 1 147. The par- 
ticular site of Alnwick is mentioned hereafter. 



94 MEMOIBS OF ROBERT CARY, 

t 

mjr office, was to cleanse my under officers. 
I made choice of Sir Henry Woodrington,* 
and Sir William Fenwick, to be my two 
deputy wardens ; and gave the one the 
keepership of Risdale, -f- the other that of 
Liddisdale, J and allowed them, out of my 
forty horse, six a piece to attend them. I 
allowed Roger Woodrington two horsemen, 
who was employed by me on all occasions ; 
and for the time I remained there, did the 
Queen and country very great and good 
service. The rest of the horse I bestowed 
on my servants in my own house, which 



# Sir Henry Widdrington, I presume, that family be- 
ing seated in Northumberland. 

f Risdale, properly Reedsdale, is a small district of 
Northumberland, adjoining to Liddisdale. E. 

J Liddisdale is a small district in the south-west of 
Scotland, on the Borders of England ; bounded on the 
east with Northumberland, on the south with Cumber- 
land. Orrery. 

There must be here some mistake of the transcriber, 
or error in the MS. Liddisdale being a part of Scot- 
land, Cary could never nominate its keeper ; and that 
office was, in fact, held by Buccleugh and his deputies. 
We should probably read Tynedale. E. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 95 

were gentlemen's sons in the country, and 
younger brothers of good rank ; so that I 
had continually in my own stable (with 
my own provision) forty good horse, and 
good men able to ride them. 

The thieves hearing of my being settled 
there, continued still their wonted course 
in spoiling the country, not caring much 
for me, nor my authority. It was the be- 
ginning of summer when I first entered into 
my office ; but afore that summer was end- 
ed, they grew somewhat more fearful. For 
the first care 1 took, was to cleanse the coun- 
try of our inbred fears, the thieves within 
my March, for by them most mischief was 
done : for the Scotch riders * were always 
guided by some of them in all the spoils 
they made. God blessed me so well in all 
my designs, as I never made journey in 
vain, but did that I went for. 

Amongst other malefactors, there were 
two gentlemen thieves, that robbed and 

* Robbers, or, as sometimes termed, moss-troopers. 



96 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

took purses from travellers in the high- 
ways, (a theft that was never heard of in 
those parts before.) I got them betrayed, 
took them, and sent them to Newcastle jail, 
and there they were hanged, 

I took not so few as sixteen or seven- 
teen that summer, and the winter follow- 
ing, of notorious offenders, that ended their 
days by hanging or heading. When I was 
warden of the East March, I had to do 
but with the opposite March, which Sir 
Robert Car had ; but here I had to do 
with the East, Middle, and West Marches 
of Scotland. I had very good justice with * 
Sir Robert Car, and the Laird of Fenhest, 
that had charge over the east part of the 
Middle March ; but the west part, which 
was Liddisdale* and the West March, kept 
me a great while in cumber. The first 
thing they did, was the taking of Hartwe- 
selly-f and carrying away of prisoners and 

* From. 

f A village or small market town near the Tyne, on 
the western frontier of Northumberland* It is now pro- 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 97 

all their goods. I sent to seek for justice 
for so great a wrong. The opposite offi- 
cer sent me word, it was not in his power, 
for that they were all fugitives, and not an- 
swerable to the King's laws. I acquainted 
the King of Scots with his answer. He 
signified to me that it was true, and that if 
I could take my own revenge without hurt- 
ing his honest subjects, he would be glad 
of it. I took no long time to resolve what 
to do, but sent some two hundred horse to 
the place where the principal outliers lived, 
and took and brought away all the goods 
they had. The outlaws themselves were in 
strong-holds, and could no wa} r be got 
hold of. But one of the chief of them, be- 
ing of more courage than the rest, gat to 
horse and came pricking after them, cry- 
ing out and asking, what he was that durst 
avow that mighty work ! One of the com- 



nounced Haltwhistle. Lord Orrery confounds it with a 
place on the English side of the Tweed, wFich he calls 
Wesell ; meaning probably Twizell. E ? 

G 



98 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

pany came to him with a spear and ran 
him through the body, leaving his spear 
broke in him, of which wound he died. 
The goods were divided to poor men from 
whom they were taken before. 

This act so irritated the outlaws, that 
they vowed cruel revenge ; and that before 
the next winter was ended, they would 
leave the whole country waste, that there 
should be none to resist them. His name 
was Sim * of the Cat-hill, that was killed, 



* Simon Armstrong. 

The " Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border' is full of 
songs concerning the Armstrongs, to one of which the 
Editor has prefixed the following general account of that 
tribe of Borderers : 

" The Armstrongs appear to have been, at an early 
period, in possession of great part of Liddisdale, and of 
the Debateable Land. Their immediate neighbourhood 
to England, rendered them the most lawless of the Bor- 
der depredators ; and, as much of the country possessed 
by them was claimed by both kingdoms, the inhabi- 
tants, protected from justice by the one nation, in op- 
position to the other, securely preyed upon both. The 
chief was Armstrong of Mangertoun ; but, at a later pe- 
riod, they are declared a broken clan, i. e. one which 
had no lawful head, to become surety for their good 



EAIiL OF MONMOUTH. 99 

(an Armstrong,) and it was a Ridley * of 
•Hartwesell that killed him. They present- 



behaviour. The rapacity of this clan, and of their allies, 
the Elliots, occasioned the popular saying, r Elliots and 
Armstrongs ride thieves all/ — But to what Border-fami- 
ly of note, in former days, would not such an adage have 
been equally applicable ? All along the river Liddel may 
still be dlcovered the ruins of towers, possessed by this 
numerous clan. They did not, however, entirely trust 
to these fastnesses; but, when attacked by a superior 
force, abandoned entirely their dwellings, and retired in- 
to morasses, accessible by paths known to themselves 
alone. Oue of their most noted places of refuge was 
the Tarras Moss, a desolate and horrible marsh, through 
which a small river takes its course. Upon its banks 
are found some dry spots, which were occupied by these 
outlaws, and their families, in cases of emergency. The 
stream runs furiously among huge rocks, which has oc- 
casioned a popular saying — 

Was ne'er ane drown'd in Tarras, nor yet in doubt, . 
For e'er the head can win down, the hams (brains) are out. 

The morass itself is so deep, that, according to an old 
historian, two spears tied together would not reach the 
bottom. In this retreat, the Armstrongs, anno 1588, baf- 
fled the Earl of Angus, when lieutenant on the Border, 
although he reckoned himself so skilful in winding a 
thief, that he declared, <( he had the same pleasure in 
it, as others in hunting a hare." On this occasion he 
was totally unsuccessful, and nearly lost his relation, 
Douglas of Ively, whom the freebooters made prisoner." 
* The Ridleys are mentioned by Camden as an an- 
cient and worthy family of Northumberland. 



100 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

ly took a resolution to be revenged on that 
town. Thither they came, and set many 
houses of the town on fire, and took away 
all their goods ; and as they were running 
up and down the streets with lights in their 
hands to set more houses on fire, there was 
one other of the Ridleys that w T as in a 
strong stone house that made a shot out 
amongst them, and it was his good hap to 
kill an Armstrong, one of the sons of the 
chiefest outlaw. The death of this young 
man wrought so deep an impression amongst 
them, as many vows were made, that be- 
fore the end of next winter, they would 
lay the whole Border waste. This (the 
murder) was done about the end of May. 
The chief of all these outlaws, was old Sim 
of Whittram. * He had five or six sons, as 



# The Earl of Orrery presumed, the place here meant 
to he Whithern, a market town, lying upon the sea 
in the bay of Wigtoun, and in the shire of Galloway. — 
The truth is, that Whittram is a well-known place in 
Liddisdale. E. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 101 

able men as the Borders had. This old 
man and his sons had not so few as two 
hundred at their commands, that were 
ever ready to ride with them to all actions* 
at their beck. 

The high parts of the Marsh -f towards 
Scotland were put in a mighty fear, and 
the chief of them, for themselves and the 
rest, petitioned to me, and did assure me, 
that unless I did take some course with 
them, by the end of that summer, there was 
none of the inhabitants durst, or would, 
stay in their dwellings the next winter, but 
they would fly the country, and leave their 
houses and lands to the fury of the out- 
laws. Upon this complaint, I called the 



# The frequent excursions of the Borderers, (indeed 
on both sides,) gave occasion to an enigmatical proverb, 
according to the style of those times, If they come they 
come not, arid if they come not they come. Meaning that 
if their herds were intercepted by those free-booters, 
then their cattle did not come home as usual at night, 
but if the free-booters did not come, then the cattle 
surely returned. 

t March, or frontier. E. 



102 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

gentlemen of the country together, and ac- 
quainted them with the misery that the 
highest parts of the March towards Scot- 
land were likely to endure, if there were 
not timely prevention to avoid it, and de- 
sired them to give me their best advice 
what course were fit to be taken. They all 
showed themselves willing to give me their 
best counsels, and most of them were of 
opinion, that I was not well advised to re- 
fuse the hundred horse that my Lord Euers 
had ; and that now my best way was speedi- 
ly to acquaint the Queen and council with 
the necessity of having more soldiers, and 
that there could not be less than a hun- 
dred horse sent down for the defence of 
the country, besides the forty that I had 
already in pay, and that there was nothing 
but force of soldiers could keep them in 
awe : and to let the council plainly under- 
stand, that the March, of themselves, were 
not able to subsist, whenever the winter 
and long nights came in, unless present 
cure and remedy were provided for them. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 103 

I desired them to advise better of it, and 
to see if they could find out any other 
means to prevent their mischievous inten- 
tions, without putting the Queen or coun- 
try to any further charge. They all resol- 
ved there was no second means. Then I 
told them my intention what I meant to do, 
which was, " That myself, with my two 
deputies, and the forty horse that I was 
allowed, would, with what speed we could, 
make ourselves ready to go up to the wastes, 
and there we would entrench ourselves, 
and lie as near as we could to the outlaws ; 
and, if there were any brave spirits among 
them, that would go with us, they should 
be very welcome, and fare and lie as well 
as myself : and I did not doubt before the 
summer ended, to do something that should 
abate the pride of these outlaws/' Those, 
that were unwilling to hazard themselves, 
liked not this motion. They said, that, in 
so doing, I might keep the country in quiet 
the time I lay there ; but, when the winter 
approached, I could stay there no longer, 



104 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

and that was the thieves' time to do all 
their mischief. But there were divers young 
gentlemen, that offered to go with me, some 
with three, some with four horses, and to 
stay with me so long as I would there 
continue. I took a list of all those that of- 
fered to go with me, and found, that, with 
myself, my officers, the gentlemen, and 
pur servants, we should be about two hun- 
dred good men and horse ; a competent 
number, as I thought, for such a service. 

The day and place was appointed for 
our meeting in the wastes, and, by the 
help of the foot* of Liddisdale and Ris- 
dale, we had soon built a pretty fort, and 
within it we had all cabins made to lie in, 
and every one brought beds or matresses 
to lie on. There we stayed, from the midst 
of June, till almost the end of August. We 
were between fifty and sixty gentlemen, 



# Soldiers maintained by the sovereigns of each king- 
dom, and placed in the several castles upon the Borders, 
not only to secure the limits, but to. suppress the riders. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 105 

besides their servants, and my horsemen ; 
so that we were not so few as two hundred 
horse. We wanted no provision for our- 
selves nor our horses, for the country peo- 
ple were well paid for any thing they 
brought us ; so that we had a good mar- 
ket every day before our fort, to buy what 
we lacked. 

The chief outlaws, at our coming, fled 
their houses where they dwelt, and betook 
themselves to a large and great forest, 
(with all their goods,) which was called the 
Tarras. * It was of that strength, and so 
surrounded with bogs and marsh grounds, 
and thick bushes and shrubs, as they fear- 
ed not the force nor power of England nor 
Scotland, so long as they were there. They 
sent me word, that I was like the first puff 
of a haggis, -f hottest at the first, and bade 



. * 'Hi 

# See a preceding note for an account of this mo- 
rass. E- 

+ A Scotch proverb. The haggis is a kind of pud- 
ding; the stomach of a sheep, filled with minced meat, 
blood, onions, and herbs. A dish much eaten by the 
common people of Scotland. It is always sent up very 



106 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

me stay there as long as the weather would 
give me leave. They would stay in the 
Tarras-wood, till I was weary of lying in 
the waste ; and when I had had my time, 
aqd they no whit the worse, they would 
play their parts, which should keep me 
waking the next winter. Those gentlemen 
of the country that came not with me, were 
of the same mind ; for they knew, (or 
thought at least,) that my force was not suf- 
ficient to withstand the fury of the out- 
laws. The time I stayed at the fort I was 
not idle, but cast, by all means I could, 
how to take them in the great strength 
they were in. I found a means to send a 
hundred and fifty horsemen into Scotland, 
(conveighed by a muffled man,* not known 
to any of the company,) thirty miles with- 
in Scotland; and the business was so carri- 
ed, that none in the country took any 



hot, and, when cut, smokes, and the air coming out, 
makes a noise. 

# A disguised guide. E. 

4 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 10T 

alarm at this passage. They were quietly 
brought to the backside of the Tarras, to 
Scotland- ward. There they divided them- 
selves into three parts, and took up three 
passages which the outlaws made them- 
selves secure of, if from England side they 
should at any time be put at. They had 
their scouts on the tops of hills, on the 
English side, to give thern warning if at 
any time any power of men should come 
to surprise them. The three ambushes 
were safely laid, without being discovered, 
and, about four o'clock in the morning, 
there were three hundred horse, and a thou- 
sand foot,* that came directly to the place 
where the scouts lay. They gave the alarm ; 
our men broke down as fast as they could 
into the wood. The outlaws thought them- 
selves safe, assuring themselves at any time 



# From this it would appear, that Cary, although his 
constant attendants in his fort consisted only of '200 
horse, had, upon this occasion, by the assistance, pro- 
bably, of the English and Scottish royal garrisons, col- 
lected a much greater force. E. 



108 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CART, 

to escape ; but they were so strongly set 
upon on the English side, as they were 
forced to leave their goods, and to betake 
themselves to their passages towards Scot- 
land. There was presently five taken of 
the principal of them. The rest, seeing 
themselves, as they thought, betrayed, re- 
tired into the thick woods and bogs, * that 
our men durst not follow them, for fear of 
losing themselves. The principal of the 
five, that were taken, were two of the eldest 
sons of Sim of Whittram. These five they 
brought to me to the fort, and a number 
of goods, both of sheep and kine, which 
satisfied most part of the country, that they 
had stolen them from, -f 



# There are now no trees in Liddisdale, except on the 
banks of the rivers, where they are protected from the 
sheep. But the stumps and fallen timber, which are 
every where found in the morasses, attest how well the 
country must have been wooded in former days. E. 

f The Editor of the " Border Minstrelsy/' has tran- 
scribed this passage from Cary's Memoirs, and adds : — 
ee The people of Liddisdale have retained, by tradi- 
tion, the remembrance of Carys Raid, as they call it. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 109 

The five that were taken, were of great 
worth and value amongst them ; insomuch, 
that, for their liberty, I should have what 
conditions I should demand, or desire. 
First, all English prisoners were set at li- 
berty. Then had I themselves, and most 
part of the gentlemen of the Scottish side, 
so strictly bound in bonds, to enter to me, 
in fifteen days warning, any offender, that 
they durst not, for their lives, break any 
covenant that I made with them ; and so, 
upon these conditions, I set them at liberty, 
and was never after troubled with these 
kind of people. Thus God blessed me in 
bringing this great trouble to so quiet an 



They tell, that, while he was besieging the outlaws in 
the Tarras, they contrived, by ways known only to them- 
selves, to send a party into England, who plundered the 
warden's lands. On their return, they sent Cary one of 
his own cows, telling him, that, fearing he might fall 
short of provision during his visit to Scotland, they had 
taken the precaution of sending him some English 
beef. The anecdote is too characteristic to be suppres- 
sed." E. 



110 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

end ; we broke up our fort, and every man 
retired to his own house. 

After God had put an end to this trou- 
blesome business, I rested in quiet the rest 
of the summer, and the next winter after ; 
and had leisure, by little and little, to 
purge the March of inbred thieves : and 
God so blessed me, that I failed not in any 
of my undertakings, but did effect what I 
went for, which did so astonish all the ma- 
lefactors as they were afraid to offend ; so 
that the March rested very quiet from the 
invasion of the foreign, and from the petty 
stealths of the thieves that lived amongst 
ourselves. 

The next summer after I fell into a cum- 
bersome trouble, but it was not in the na- 
ture of thieves or malefactors. There had 
been an ancient custom of the Borderers, 
when they were at quiet, for the oppo- 
site Border to send to the warden of 
the Middle March, to desire leave that 
they might come into the Borders of Eng- 
land, and hunt with their greyhounds for 
deer, towards the end of summer, which 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. Ill 

was never denied them. But, towards the 
end of Sir John Foster's government, when 
he grew very old and weak, they took 
boldness upon them, and, without leave 
asking, would come into England, and 
hunt at their pleasure, and stay their own 
time : and when they were a hunting, their 
servants would come with carts, and cut 
down as much wood as every one thought 
would serve his turn, and carry it away to 
their houses in Scotland. Sir John's imbe- 
cility and weakness occasioned them to 
continue this misdemeanour some four or 
five years together, before he left his office. 
And after my Lord Euers had the office, 
he was so vexed and troubled with the dis- 
orders of the country, as all the time he re- 
mained there, he had no leisure to think of 
so small a business, and to redress it ; so 
that now they began to hold it lawful to 
come and go at their pleasures, without 
leave asking. The first summer I entered, 
they did the like. The Armstrongs kept 
me so on work, that I had no time to re- 



112 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

dress it. But having over-mastered them, 
and the whole March being brought to a 
good stay and quietness, the beginning of 
next summer, I wrote to Ferniherst, * the 
warden over-against me, to desire him to 
acquaint the gentlemen of his March, that 
I was no way unwilling to hinder them of 
their accustomed sports to hunt in Eng- 
land as they ever had done, but withal I 
would not, by my default, dishonour the 
Queen and myself, to give them more li- 
berty than was fitting. I prayed him, 
therefore, to let them know, that if they 
would, according to the ancient custom, 
send to me for leave, they should have all 
the contentment I could give them ; if 
otherwise they would continue their wont- 
ed course, I would do my best to hinder 
them. 

Notwithstanding this letter, within a 
month after, they came and hunted as they 



* Sir Thomas Ker of Ferniherst, ancestor: of the 
Marquis of Lothian. E, 5 



E*ARL OF MONMOUTH. US 

used to do without leave, and cut down 
wood, and carried it away. I wrote again 
to the warden, and plainly told him, I 
would not suffer one other affront, but if 
they came again without leave, they should 
dearly aby * it. For all this, they would 
not be warned ; but towards the end of 
the summer, they came again to their 
wonted sports. I had taken order to have 
present word brought me, which was done. 
I sent my two deputies with all the speed 
they could make, and they took along with 
them such gentlemen as were in their way, 
with my forty horse, and about one of the 
clock they came to them, and set upon 
them ; some hurt was done, but I gave es- 
pecial order they should do as little hurt, 
and shed as little blood as possibly they 
could. They observed my command, only 
they broke all their carts, and took a do- 
zen of the principal gentlemen that were 

* Suffer for it. 
H 



114 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

there, and brought them to me to Wither- 
ington, * where I then lay. I made them 
welcome, and gave them the best enter- 
tainment that I could. They lay in the 
castle two or three days, and so I sent 
them home ; they assuring me, that they 
would never hunt there again without leave, 
which they did truly perform all the time 
I stayed there; and I many times met 
them myself, and hunted with them two 
or three days : and so we continued good 
neighbours ever after. But the King com- 
plained to the Queen very grievously of 
this fact. The Queen and council liked 
very well of what I had done ; but to give 
the King some satisfaction to content him, 
my two officers were commanded to the 
Bishop of Durham's, there to remain pri- 
soners during her Majesty's pleasure. With- 
in a fortnight I had them out again, and 
there was no more of this business. The 



# The castle of Withrington, in Northumberland. 

2 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 115 

rest of the time I stayed there, it was go- 
verned with great quietness. 

In this state was this Middle March, 
when Kino- James came in Kino- of Bog*- 
land ; and in all the time I continued of- 
ficer there, God so blessed me, and in all 
the actions I took in band, that I never 
failed of any one enterprise, but they were 
all effected to my own desire, and the good 
of that government. Thus passed I forty- 
two of my years, God assisting me with his 
blessing and mighty protection. 

After that all things were quieted, and 
the Border in safety, towards the end of 
five years that I had been warden there, 
having little to do, I resolved upon a jour- 
ney to court, to see my friends, and renew 
my acquaintance there. I took my jour- 
ney about the end of the year. * When I 
came to court, I found the Queen ill dis- 
posed, and she kept her inner lodging ; yet 
she, hearing of my arrival, sent for me. 

* 160c. 



116 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

I found her in one of her withdrawing 
chambers, sitting low upon her cushions. 
She called me to her; I kissed her hand, 
and told her it was my chiefest happiness 
to see her in safety* and in health, which I 
wished might long continue. She took me 
by the hand, and wrung it hard, and said, 
" No, Robin, I am not well/' and then dis- 
coursed with me of her indisposition, and 
that her heart had been sad and heavy for 
ten or twelve days ; and in her discourse, 
she fetched not so few as forty or fifty great 
sighs. I was grieved at the first to see her 
in this plight ; for in all my lifetime be- 
fore, I never knew her fetch a sigh, but 
when the Queen of Scots was beheaded. 
Then, * upon my knowledge, she shed many 
tears and sighs, -f manifesting her inno- 
cence, that she never gave consent to the 
death of that Queen. 

I used the best words I could, to per- 



* At that time — In the year 1587* 

f They were indeed necessary upon that occasion. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 117 

suade her from this melancholy humour ; 
but I found by her it was too deep-rooted 
in her heart, and hardly to be removed. 
This was upon a Saturday night, and she 
gave command, that the great closet should 
be prepared for her to go to chapel the 
next morning. The next day, all things 
being in a readiness, we long expected her 
coming. After eleven o'clock, one of the 
grooms * came out, and bade make ready 
for the private closet, she would not go to 
the great. There we stayed long for her 
coming, but at the last she had cushions 
laid for her in the privy chamber hard by 
the closet door, and there she heard ser- 
vice. 

From that day forwards, she grew worse 
and worse. She remained upon her cushions 
four days and nights at the least. All 
about her could not persuade her, either 
to take any sustenance, or go to bed. 

# Of the chambers. 



118 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY> 

I hearing that neither the physicians, 
nor none about her, could persuade her to 
take any course for her safety, feared her 
death would soon after ensue. I could 
not but think in what a wretched estate 
I should be left, most of my livelihood de- 
pending on her life. And hereupon I be- 
thought myself with what grace and favour 
I was ever received by the King of Scots, 
whensoever I was sent to him. I did as- 
sure myself, it was neither unjust, nor un- 
honest for me to do for myself, if God, at 
that time, should call her to his mercy. 
Hereupon I wrote to the King of Scots, 
(knowing him to be the, right heir to the 
crown of England, *) and certified him in 
what state her Majesty was. I desired 
him not to stir from Edinburgh ; if of that 
sickness she should die, I would be the 
first man that should bring him news of 
it. 



* Protestants and Papists unanimously allowed his 
right; not a. murmur arose against it. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 119 

The Queen grew worse and worse, be- 
cause she would be so, none about her 
being able to persuade her to go to bed. 
My Lord Admiral * was sent for, (who, by 
reason of my sisters death, that was his 
wife, had absented himself some fortnight 
from court;) what by fair means, what by 
force, he got her to bed. There was no 
hope of her recovery, because she refused 
all remedies. 

On Wednesday, the 23d of March, she 
grew speechless. That afternoon, by signs, 
she called for her council, and by putting 
her hand to her head, -f when the king of 



* Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, married to 
Catherine, eldest daughter of Henry, Lord Hunsdon. 

f The sign here mentioned, is a true and indisputa- 
ble fact, otherwise it would not have been inserted by 
the plain, sincere, and ingenious author of these Me- 
moirs, who was present at the time the sign was made. 
But still it remains a doubt whether the Queen intend- 
ed it for a sign or notT The Lords present pretended to 
think it one. Orrery. 

So my Lord Orrery. But it is plain from her repeat- 
ed signs to the bishop to continue his devotions, that 



120 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

Scots was named to succeed her, thev all 
knew he was the man she desired should 
reign after her. 

About six at night she made signs for 
the archbishop * and her chaplains to come 
to her, at which time I went in with them, 
and sat upon my knees full of tears to see 
that heavy sight. Her Majesty lay upon 



Elizabeth knew the import of her motions. And whom 
could she have thought of destining to be her successor, 
hut the King of Scotland. E. 

* John Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury. He was 
highly esteemed by Queen Elizabeth for his sense, learn- 
ing, and piety. The Queen, who was particularly wary 
what concessions she made, and to whom she granted 
them, allowed Archbishop Whitgift, in the year 1579, 
(then Bishop of Worcester,) the power of bestowing the 
prebends of his church on such persons as he thought 
lit, which disposal before this time had not been in the 
nomination of the Bishop, but of the crown ; nor did 
she now give away the right of such disposal to him, 
and his successors, but only as a particular favour to 
himself during his continuance in that see. And in the 
year 1580, the nomination of justices of the peace for 
Worcestershire and Warwickshire was left to his discre- 
tion. Such a confidence did the Queen repose in the 
wisdom and integrity of this Bishop.— See the Lives of 
the Archbishops. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 121 

her back, with one hand in the bed, and 
the other without The bishop kneeled 
down by her, and examined her first of her 
faith ; and she so punctually answered all 
his several questions, by lifting up her eyes, 
and holding up her hand, as it was a com- 
fort to all the beholders. Then the good 
man told her plainly what she was, and 
what she was to come to ; and though she 
had been long a great Queen here upon 
earth, yet shortly she was to yield an ac- 
count of her stewardship to the King of 
kings. After this he began to pray, and 
all that were by did answer him. After he 
had continued long in prayer, till the old 
man's knees were weary, he blessed her, 
and meant to rise and leave her. The 
Queen made a sign with her hand. My 
sister Scroop * knowing her meaning, told 
the bishop the Queen desired he would 
pray still. He did so for a long half hour 



* Philadelphia, Lady Scroop, second daughter of 
Henry Cary, Lord Hunsdon. 



122 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

after, and then thought to leave her. The 
second time she made sign to have him 
continue in prayer. He did so for half an 
hour more, with earnest cries to God for 
her soul's health, which he uttered with 
that fervency of spirit, as the Queen, to all 
our sight, much rejoiced thereat, and gave 
testimony to us all of her Christian and 
comfortable end. By this time it grew 
late, and every one departed, all but her 
women that attended her. 

This that I heard with my ears, and did 
see with my eyes, I thought it my duty to 
set down, and to affirm it for a truth, upon 
the faith of a Christian ; because I know 
there have been many false lies reported of 
the end and death of that good lady. 

I went to my lodging, and left word 
with one in the cofferer's chamber to call 
me, if that night it was thought she would 
die, and gave the porter an angel to let me 
in at any time when I called. Between 
one and two of the clock on Thursday morn- 
ing, he that I left in the cofferer's chamber, 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 125 

brought me word the Queen was dead. * 
I rose and made all the haste to the gate to 
get in. There I was answered, I could not 
enter ; the lords of the council having been 
with him, and commanded him that none 
should go in or out, but by warrant from 
them. At the very instant, one of the 
council (the comptroller) asked whether I 
was at the gate. I said, yes. He said to 
me, if I pleased he would let me in. I de- 
sired to know how the Queen did. He 
answered, pretty well. I bade him good 
night. He replied, and said, Sir, if you 
will come in, I will give you my word and 
credit you shall go out again at your own 
pleasure. Upon his word, I entered the 
gate, and came up to the cofferer's cham- 
ber, where I found all the ladies weeping 
bitterly. He led me from thence to the 
privy chamber, where all the council was 
assembled ; there I was caught hold of, 



* She died March 24, soon after the archbishop had 
left her, about three o'clock in the morning. 



.124 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

and assured I should not go for Scotland, 
till their pleasures were farther known. I 
told them I came of purpose to that end. 
From thence they all went to the secre- 
tary's chamber; and as they went, they 
gave a special command to the porters, 
that none should go out of the gates, but 
such servants as they should send to pre- 
pare their coaches and horses for London. 
There was I left in the midst of the court 
to think my own thoughts till they had 
done council. I went to my brother's* 
chamber, who was in bed, having been 
over-watched many nights before. I got 



* George Lord Hunsdon, a Privy Counsellor, Cap- 
tain of the Band of Pensioners, Governor of the Isle of 
Wight, and Knight of the Garter. Orrery, 

He was a gallant and high-spirited gentleman. In 
1570 he attended the Earl of Sussex, in an invasion of 
Scotland, directed against Queen Mary's partizans, on 
which occasion, he received the honour of knighthood. 
In the same expedition, he distinguished himself, by 
sending a cartel, or challenge, to Lord Fleming, the Go- 
vernor of Dumbarton Castle. Their correspondence may 
"be found in Hollinshed, ad annum 1570. E. 



EARL OJF MONMOUTH. 125 

him up with all speed, and when the coun- 
cil's men were going out of the gate, my 
brother thrust to the gate. The porter know- 
ing him to be a great officer, let him out. I 
pressed after him, and was stayed by the 
porter. My brother said angrily to the 
porter, " Let him out, I will answer for 
him." Whereupon I was suffered to pass, 
which I was not a little glad of. 

I got to horse, and rode to the Knight 
Marshal's lodging, by Charing Cross, and 
there stayed till the Lords came to White- 
hall Garden. I staid there till it was nine 
o'clock in the morning, and hearing that all 
the Lords were in the old orchard at 
Whitehall ; I sent the Marshal to tell them, 
that I had staid all that while to know their 
pleasures, and that I would attend them, 
if they would command me any service. 
They were very glad when they heard I 
was not gone, and desired the Marshal to 
send for me, and I should with all speed 
be dispatched for Scotland. The Marshal 
believed them, and sent Sir Arthur Savage 



126 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

for me. I made haste to them. One of 
the council (my Lord of Banbury * that 
now is) whispered the Marshal in the ear, 
and told him, if I came they would stay 
me, and send some other in my stead. The 
Marshal got from them, and met me com- 
ing to them between the two gates. He 
bade me begone, for he had learned, for 
certain, that if I came to them, they would 
betray me. 

I returned and took horse between nine 
and ten o'clock, -f and that night rode to 
Doncaster. J The Friday night, I came 
to my own house at Witherington, and 
presently took order with my deputies to 



* William Knolles. He was Treasurer of the house- 
hold to Queen Elizabeth. He was raised to high ho- 
nours by James I., was made Master of the Wards, and 
Knight of the Garter. He was created Earl of Banbury 
by Charles L, in the second year of that King's reign, 
probably the year when these Memoirs were put toge- 
ther. 

+ On Thursday morning, March 24. 

J Situated upon the river Done, in Yorkshire, 155 
miles from London. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 127 

see the Borders kept in quiet 9 which they 
had much to do: and gave order the next 
morning, the King of Scotland should be 
proclaimed King of England, and at Mor- 
peth * and Alnwick, -f Very early on Sa- 
turday I took horse for Edinburgh, and 
came to Norham $ about twelve at noon, 
so that I might well have been with the 
King at supper time : but I got a great 
fall by the way, and my horse, with one 
of his heels, gave me a great blow on the 
head, that made me shed much blood. It 
made me so weak, that I was forced to 
ride a soft pace after, so that the King was 
newly gone to bed by the time that I 



# Morpeth, a borough town in Northumberland, si- 
tuated upon the river Wansbeck (Wentsbeach.) 

f The Castle of Alnwick has been mentioned before, 
page 93. The town, which lies directly north of Mor- 
peth, in the high road to Berwick, stands upon the river 
Alne, in Northumberland. 

% The last town, or rather village, in the most north- 
ern part of Northumberland, near the mouth of the 
Tweed, south-west of Berwick. 



128 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CAKY, 

knocked at the gate. * I was quickly let 
in, and carried up to the King's chamber. 
I kneeled by him, and saluted him by his 
title of England, Scotland, France, and 
Ireland. He gave me his hand to kiss, 
and bade me welcome. *j* After he had 
long discoursed of the manner of the 
Queen's sickness, and of her death, he ask- 
ed what letters I had from the council ? I 
told him, none : and acquainted him how 
narrowly I escaped from them. J And yet 
I had brought him a blue ring from a fair 
lady, that I hoped would give him assu- 
rance of the truth that I had reported. He 
took it, and looked upon it, and said, " It 
is enough : I know by this you are a true 
messenger/' Then he committed me to 
the charge of my Lord Hume, and gave 
straight command that I should want no- 



# Of Holyroodhouse, on Saturday, March 0,6, 1603. 

-f This interview is particularly mentioned by Francis 
Osborne, Esq. in his Traditional, or rather Satirical 
Memorials of James I. 

J See the Preface. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 129 

thing. He sent for his chirurgeons to at- 
tend me, and when I kissed his hand at 
my departure, he said to me these gracious 
words : " I know you have lost a near kins- 
woman, and a loving mistress : but take 
here my hand, I will be as good a master 
to you, and will requite this service with 
honour and reward." 

So 1 left him that night, and went with 
my Lord Hume to my lodging, where I 
had all things fitting for so weary a man as 
I was. After my head was drest, I took 
leave of my Lord, and many others that 
attended me, and went to my rest. 

The next morning, by ten o'clock, my 
Lord Hume was sent to me from the King, 
to know how I had rested; and withal 
said, that his Majesty commanded him to 
know of me, what it was that I desired 
most that he should do for me ; bade me 
ask, and it should be granted. I desired 
my Lord to say to his Majesty from me, 
that I had no reason to importune him for 

i 



130 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

any suit, for that I had not as yet done 
him any service : but my humble request 
to his Majesty was, to admit me a gentle- 
man of his bedchamber ; and hereafter, I 
knew, if his Majesty saw me worthy, I 
should not want to taste of his bounty. My 
Lord returned this answer, that he sent me 
word back, " With all his heart, I should 
have my request/' And the next time I 
came to court (which was some four days 
after) at night, I was called into his bed- 
chamber, and there by my Lord of Rich- 
mond, * in his presence, I was sworn one 
of the gentlemen of his bedchamber, and 
presently I helped to take off his clothes, 
and stayed till he was in bed. After this 
there came daily gentlemen and noblemen 
from our court ; and the King set down a 



# Lodowick Stewart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, 
a relation to James I., by whom he was much, and most 
deservedly, regarded, being a nobleman of an excellent 
character. 

13 



EARL OF MONMOUTH, 131 

fixed day for his departure towards Lon- 
don. * 

Upon the report of the Queen's death, 
the East Border -f broke forth into great 
unruliness, insomuch, as many complaints 
came to the King thereof. I was desirous 
to go to appease them, but I was so weak, 
and ill of my head, that I was not able to 
undertake such a journey ; but I offered 
that I would send my two deputies, that 
should appease the trouble, and make 
them quiet, which was by them shortly af- 
ter effected. J 

Now was I to begin a new world ; for, 
by the King's coming to the crown, I was 

# He left Edinburgh April 5, and was a month in 
his journey ; hunting and feasting the whole way. 

f We should read West Border. E. 

J Upon the Queen's death, Gary's old acquaintances, 
the Armstrongs, broke into England, and plundered the 
country as far as Penrith. Sir William Selby was sent 
against them from Berwick ; Henry Witherington, and 
William Fenwick, were joined in commission with him. 
Having levied the force of the borders of both king- 
doms, his strength, when he reached Liddisdale, was a 
thousand horse ; so that he was enabled severely to chas- 
tise the insurgents. E. 



132 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

to lose the best part of my living. For 
my office of wardenry ceased, and I lost 
the pay of forty horse, which were not so 
little, (both) as a thousand pounds per an- 
num. Most of the great ones in court en- 
vied my happiness, when they heard I was 
sworn of the King's bedchamber : and in 
Scotland I had no acquaintance. I only 
relied on God and the King. The one ne- 
ver left me; the other, shortly after his coin- 
ing to London, deceived my expectation, 
and adhered to those that sought my ruin. 
At the King's coming to the Tower, 
there was, at the least, twenty Scots gen- 
tlemen discharged of the bed-chamber, * 
and sworn gentlemen of the privy-cham- 
ber, amongst which (some that wished me 
little good, had such credit with the King, 
that) I was to go the same way that the 
rest did ; out of God's blessing into the 
warm sun. I could not help it. Those 



# Amongst whorn, Mr James Hays> mentioned here- 
after, page 134, was one. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 133 

that ruled the helm had so resolved it ; 
and I was forced to that I could not help. 
All the comfort that I had was the King's 
assurance that I should shortly be admit- 
ted to his bed-chamber again. And where- 
as I was promised one hundred pounds per 
annum in fee farm, it was cut short to one 
hundred mark. Thus all things went cross 
with me, and patience was my best com- 
panion. He that did me most hurt, * and 
was greedy of Naboth's vineyard, gave me 
that counsel which I followed, and I found 
after it did me much good. He told me 
he knew the King better than I did, and 
assured me, that if the King did perceive 
in me a discontented mind, I should never 
have his love nor favour again, -f I had a 



* Whoever this was, our author, with great tender- 
ness, secretes his name ; partly, perhaps, from gratitude, 
since, after he had seized the vineyard, he gave Naboth 
good advice. 

f The King was cheerful and facetious at his meals, 
and in his idle conversations. He loved to see those he 
talked to as jovial as himself, especially when he was 



134 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

sad heart, yet still before the King I shew- 
ed myself merry and jovial. 

This continued till the Queen * came 
up, which was the next summer, -j- My 
wife waited on her ; and at Windsor was 
sworn of her privy-chamber, and mistress 
of her sweet coffers, J and had a lodging 
allowed her in court. This was some com- 
fort to me, that I had my wife so near me. 
Shortly after her coming, she § made suite 
for James Hays || to be admitted again in- 



conscious that he had given them occasion to be other- 
wise. 

* Ann, second daughter of Frederick, King of Den- 
mark. 

f She arrived at York, June 11, 1603; and meeting 
the King soon after at Sir G. Fermor's seat, in Nor- 
thamptonshire, proceeded with him to London. 

J They were called sweet coffers, from the variety of 
musks and sweets, in which the Queen's clothes were 
kept, according to the perfumed fashion of those times. 
The employment, I believe, was the same as that which 
is now termed mistress of the robes. 
i § The Queen. 

|| To shew a specimen of Osborne's bitterness, speak- 
ing of this gentleman, he says, " It is known he (James 
Bays) did bestow more trimming in the varnish of a 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 135 

to the bed-chamber * with Philip Her- 
bert, -f- I bestirred myself as well as I 
could, and charged the King with his pro- 
mise, but could do no good. They were 
taken in, J and poor I refused, never after 
to hope for it. 

wainscot carcase, than any of his master's ancestors dick 
in the clothing themselves and their own families." In 
the representation of characters and things, two differ- 
ent sides may generally be exhibited ; the one black, 
the other white. Osborne never fails to exhibit only the 
dark side. Writers, who act more ingenuously, exhibit 
both. This gentleman, Sir James Hays, is represented 
in history, as sumptuous in his apparel, costly in his 
manner of living, and splendid in his entertainment of 
foreigners. He was sent ambassador into France, in the 
fifteenth year of King James, where he spared no cost 
to sustain the honour and wealth (Osborne would say 
the luxury and extravagance) of the English nation, 
" Having," says a genealogist, iS his anti-suppers, at one 
of which, an attendant eat, for his own share, a pye reck- 
oned at twenty pounds sterling." 

* Hfe was a gentleman of the bed-chamber in Scot- 
land, and desired to be in the same post in England. 

f Brother to the Earl of Pembroke. "He pretend- 
ed," says Lord Clarendon, " to no other qualifications, 
than to understand horses and dogs very well." — He was 
Chancellor of the University of Oxford. 

J They afterwards became great favourites, and en- 
joyed very high promotions. Sir James Hay was crea- 



136 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

They left me not thus that wished me 
evil; but having nothing but Norham to 
live on, my good Lord of Dunbar * beg- 
ged the keeping of it over my head, and I 
did see it was folly to strive, and there- 
fore thought on the next best course to do 
myself good. Dunbar thirsted after no- 
thing more than to get of me the posses- 
sion of Norham. My Lord Cecil was um- 
pire between us : he offered five thousand 
pounds : I held it at seven thousand : six 
thousand pounds was agreed upon, which 
was truly paid, and did me more good 
than if 1 had kept Norham. After the 
agreement made, having received two thou- 
sand pounds, the rest I was to have at 
three months, and three months ; I then 
took my journey to the North, to give his 



ted Earl of Carlisle, and Philip Herbert was created 
Earl of Montgomery ; both were made Knigbts of the 
Garter. 

# George Hume, Earl of Dunbar. He bears a cha- 
racter in history of great integrity, conduct, and resolu- 
tion. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 137 

agents possession of Norham. I sold them 
there as much goods, as, when I returned 
back, I received of my Lord Dunbar eight 
hundred pounds for. 

When I was at Norham, God put it in- 
to my mind to go to Dunfermline, to see the 
King's second son. * I found him a very 
weak child. I stayed a day or two with 
my Lord of Dunfermline, *f whom I had 
long known, and was my noble friend, and 
so returned to court again. 

The summer after, mv Lord Dunferm- 
line and his lady were to bring up the 
young Duke. The King was at Theobalds, 
when he heard that they were past Nor- 
thumberland ; from thence the King sent 
me to meet them, and gave me commission 
to see them furnished with all things ne- 



* The misguided, unfortunate Charles I. 

+ Alexander Seaton, Earl of Dunfermline, Chancellor 
of Scotland. As he was educated in the Roman Catho- 
lic religion, he continued in it to his last moments. Pru- 
dence, integrity, and moderation, were the characteris- 
tics which distinguished him throughout his life. 



138 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

cessary, and to stay with them till they 
had brought the Duke to court. I did so, 
and found the Duke at Bishops Awke- 
land. * I attended his Grace all his jour- 
ney up ; and at Sir George Farmor's, in 
Northamptonshire, -f we found the King 
and Queen, who were very glad to see 
their young son. 

There were many great ladies suitors for 
the keeping of the Duke ; J but when they 
did see how weak a child he was, and not 
likely to live, their hearts were down, and 
none of them was desirous to take charge 
of him. 

After my Lord Chancellor of Scotland 
and his lady had stayed here from Mid- 
summer, till towards Michaelmas, they 
were to return for Scotland, and to leave 
the Duke behind them. The Queen (by 



# A market-town in the bishopric of Durham, where 
the Bishops of that see have a palace. 

f Eaton was the name of Sir George Farmor's seat. 
J Of York. 



EARL OF MOXMOUTH. 139 

approbation of the Lord Chancellor*) made 
choice of my wife, to have the care and 
keeping of the Duke. Those who wished 
me no good, were glad of it, thinking that 
if the Duke should die in our charge, (his 
weakness being such as gave them great 
cause to suspect it,) then it would not be 
thought fit that we should remain in court 
after. My gracious God left me not, but 
out of weakness, he shewed his strength, 
and, beyond all men's expectations, so bles- 
sed the Duke with health and strength, un- 
der my wife's charge, as he grew better and 
better every day. The King and Queen 
rejoiced much to see him prosper as he did ; 
and my wife, for the care she had of him, 
and her diligence, (which indeed was great,) 
was well esteemed of them both, as did 
well appear. For by her procurement, when 
I was from court, she got me a suite of the 
King, that was worth to me afterwards four 
or five thousand pounds. I had the charge 

* Lord Dunfermline, Chancellor of Scotland, 



140 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CART, 

given me of the Duke's household, and 
none allowed to his service, but such as I 
gave way to ; by which means I preferred 
to him a number of my own servants. In 
the mean time, that my wife had the 
charge of him, my daughter was brought 
up with the King's daughter, * and served 
her, and had the happiness to be allowed 
to wait on her in the privy-lodgings. My 
wife and self, by waiting still in the privy- 
lodgings of the Duke, got better esteem of 
the King and Queen. 

The Duke was past four years old, when 
he was first delivered to my wife ; he was 
not able to go, nor scant stand alone, he 
was so weak in his joints, and especial- 
ly his ankles, insomuch, as many feared 
they were out of joint. Yet God so bles- 
sed him, both with health and strength, 



* The Princess Elizabeth. She was born at Dun- 
fermline Castle. She was married in the year 1612, to 
Frederic, Prince Palatine of the Rhine, elected King 
of Bohemia. This illustrious and unfortunate princess 
was grandmother to King George the First. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 141 

that he proved daily stronger and stronger. 
Many a battle my wife had with the King, 
but she still prevailed. The King was de- 
sirous that the string under his tongue 
should be cut, for he was so long begin- 
ning to speak, as he thought he would ne- 
ver have spoke. * Then he would have 
him put in iron boots, to strengthen his si- 
news and joints ; but my wife protested so 
much against them both, as she got the 
victory, and the King was fain to yield. 
My wife had the charge of him from a lit- 
tle past four, till he was almost eleven years 
old ; in all which time, he daily grew more 
and more in health and strength, both of 
body and mind, to the amazement of many 
that knew his weakness, when she first took 



# He always had an impediment in his speech. It is 
remarked somewhere, that he had less of it at his trial 
than at any other time ; probably, because he was then 
more cautious and considerate than at other times : he 
was naturally hasty in his manner of speaking, especial- 
ly when irritated, which he was easily apt to be, till his 
troubles reduced a spirit and disposition in him, which 
were extremely improper and ungraceful. 



142 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

charge of him. t Now was my wife to 
leave her charge, and the Duke to have 
none but men to attend upon him. My 
wife had four hundred pounds a-year pen- 
sion during her life, and admitted to the 
Queen's service, in the place she was be- 
fore ; and so with great grief took leave of 
her dear master the Duke. 

And now began anew more troubles for 
me to run through ; for it was resolved by 
some of my ill wishers, that I should leave 
his service when my wife went from him. 
And to that end, there was a Scots gentle- 
man of great learning, and very good worth, 
sent for out of Ireland from his service 
there, to be placed as chief governor over 
the Duke, both in his bed-chamber, and 
over his household ; and Prince Henry, the 



* Unless he had fallen by an untimely death, his 
strength of nature, his temperance, and his regularity 
were such, as must have carried him to a very great 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 143 

chief instrument of his preferment. * Over 
he came, and daily expected to receive his 
charge by the appointment of the King 
and council : and to that end, a council 
was called, the King being present, where 
it was propounded, that this gentleman 
should be chief gentleman of his bed- 
chamber, master of his robes, and com- 
mander of his household and family : and 
for that I had served him long, they would 
not clean -f- dismiss me, but I should be of 
his bed-chamber still, and keeper of his 
privy-purse. It was near concluding that 
it should be so, but my God, that never 
forsook me, put it into the mind of my 
Lord Chamberlain Suffolk J to say some- 



# Henry Prince of Wales was particularly acute in his 
judgment of men of worth and learning. Such it seems 
was this gentleman, but his name remains concealed. 

"f Entirely. 

J Lord Thomas Howard. He was only son, by the 
second wife, to Thomas, the second Duke of Norfolk'. 
He was created Earl of Suffolk, in the first year of King 
James, (1603,) to whom he was Lord Chamberlain. 



144 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

thing for me. It was no more but this ; 
he said to the King, " Sir, this gentleman 
that is recommended to be so near the 
Duke, I have heard much worth of him, 
and by report, he is a fit man for near at- 
tendance about his grace. Notwithstand- 
ing, give me leave, I beseech you> to speak 
my knowledge of my cousin Cary. I have 
known him long, and the manner of his 
living. There was none in the late Queen's 
court, that lived in a better fashion than 
he did. He so behaved himself, that he 
was beloved of all in court* and elsewhere ; 
wheresoever he went, the company he kept 
was of the best, as well noblemen as others. 
He carried himself so, as every honest man 
was glad of his company. He ever spent 
with the best, and wore as good clothes as 
any, and he exceeded in making choice of 
what he wore to be handsome and comely. 
His birth I need speak nothing of : it is 
known well enough. I leave him to your 
Majesty to dispose of: only this, sure I 
am, there is none about the Duke that 



EARL OY MONMOUTH. 145 

knows how to furnish him with clothes and 
apparel so well as he ; and therefore, in my 
opinion, he is the fittest man to be master 
of the robes/' This cast the scales. The 
King took hold of his speech, and said, he 
had spoken justly and honestly; my birth 
and breeding requiring the chief place 
about his son, and I should have it, and 
the mastership of his robes ; he should do 
me a great deal of wrong else. Hereupon, 
though many were mad against it, yet the 
King's pleasure being signified, there durst 
none oppose; but it was by the council 
concluded, that I should be sworn chief 
gentleman of his bed-chamber, and of the 
office of his robes ; and the other of his 
bed-chamber, and master of his privy- 
purse. The King and council being risen, 
word was with all speed sent to St James's 
to Prince Henry of what was decreed. By 
the persuasion of some about him, he came 
to Whitehall in all haste to alter this reso- 
lution. He was much discontented, and 

K 



146 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

greatly desired an alteration. The King 
sent for my Lord Chamberlain. The Prince 
was very earnest, and something angry at 
my Lord, that he had said so much. He 
very nobly excused himself, that he had 
said no more, but what he knew to be true. 
After long dispute, and that the Prince saw 
the King was unwilling to alter what was 
resolved by the council, he said to my 
Lord, " I hope it shall not offend you, if I 
can get Sir Robert Cary himself to accept 
of the second place/' He answered, no : 
what I consented to should satisfy him ; so 
they parted, and the Prince came to St 
James's much troubled. I had word what 
passed betwixt them. To St James's I went, 
and attended in the Prince's privy-chanv- 
ber to know his pleasure, looking still when 
he should call to speak with me. I stayed 
two days, and heard no word from him. 
The third, after supper, he called me to 
the cup-board, and thus began : " You 
know my brother is to have his household 
settled, and there are two places about 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 147 

him of equal worth ; and because you 
have served him long, and are nobly born, 
it is reason you should have your choice. 
There is the survey orship of his lands, 
(which I take to be the best place,) and 
the mastership of his robes. You have 
many friends ; and by having that office, 
you may do them and yourself good. The 
other I take to be a place of no such im- 
port. I thought good to know of yourself, 
which you would make choice of."* I 
humbly thanked him, that he gave me that 
respect in advising me to that which he 
thought best ; but I humbly craved par- 
don, alleging my insufficiency in the one, 
which if I should accept, I should wrong 
my master, and discredit myself; and if I 
had skill in any thing, I thought I could 



* The few letters remaining of this hopeful Prince, 
and this private conversation with Sir Robert Cary, join- 
ed to the several anecdotes we have of his short life, 
shew him to have been of a most noble, sincere, just, 
and generous disposition. 



148 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

tell how to make good clothes ; and there- 
fore desired humbly I might continue in 
the place I had ; and that he would please 
to dispose of the other as he liked. He 
was satisfied with my answer ; and within 
two days after, I was sworn chief gentle- 
man of the bed-chamber, and master of the 
robes ; and the other, gentleman of the 
bed-chamber, master of the privy-purse, 
and surveyor-general of his lands. 

This storm was thus blown over, and I 
was settled as 1 desired. I continued so 
a long time, and God so blessed me, as I 
had the favour and good opinion of the 
King, and regained my credit with that 
worthy Prince, that maugre the malice of 
some near about him, he thought me ho- 
nest and faithful to the King, himself, and 
his brother; and daily more and more I 
found the Prince to conceive better and 
better of me. But the hopes I had of him 
did quickly vanish ; for within two years * 

* On Sunday, October 12th, l6l 1. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 149 

after, it pleased God to call to his mercy, 
that hopeful and brave Prince, that was a 
terror to his enemies, and a sure anchor to 
his friends. * And that small time he lived 
here, he employed it so worthily, as the loss 
of him was so grievous to all the subjects of 
this island, that no expression of sorrow 
could enough manifest their grief. 

The Duke, by succession, was then 
Prince ; and before I could imagine any 
mischief to be plotted against me, there 
was a sure groundwork laid (as they thought) 
to supplant me, and put me from being his 
chamberlain at his creation, when he was 
Prince of Wales. Long before the time, 
one near about the Prince would often say 
to me, that at his creation I was sure to be 



# All historians agree in giving an excellent and ex- 
alted character to Prince Henry. He was certainly a 
most hopeful Prince. He died in a lucky hour for his 
fame and happiness ; whilst his laurels were fresh, and 
long before they could possibly be blasted, by envy, ma- 
lice, revenge, or, to comprehend all hell in one word, 
by party. 



150 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

his chamberlain ; but then I could not be 
of his bed-chamber. I did always answer, 
that 1 would not be put out of his bed- 
chamber for any other office that could be 
given me ; but I did see no reason why 
I should not hold them both. This kind 
of language he held oft with me. At last, 
before the Prince in his school-chamber, 
he began the like speech, the Prince affirm- 
ing J could not be both. I then suspected 
something, and pleaded for myself, that 
there was a present example of my Lord 
of Somerset, who was the King's chamber- 
lain, and yet kept the bed-chamber. It 
was alleged that he was a favourite, but 
never any before had them both. I said 
there was as great reason for me to be 
chamberlain, and of his bed-chamber, as 
for another to be his surveyor-general, and 
to hold his place in the bed-chamber. That 
was said to be but a petty office, but the 
chamberlain's place was of a high nature. 
This discourse was moved before the Prince, 
of purpose that he might hear me refuse 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 151 

the chamberlains place, except I might 
continue my place in the bed-chamber, 
which was all they desired. Shortly after, 
they got the Prince to confirm to the King 
what he heard me say, that I would not be 
his chamberlain, to lose my place in the 
bed-chamber. Then they pleaded to the 
King, how unfit it was that any man should 
hold both places ; and that there w^s no 
example that ever Prince had the like ; in- 
somuch, as they brought the King to their 
opinion. Then the King was wrought on 
to make my Lord of Roxburghe * the 
Prince's chamberlain, which was conclu- 
ded ; but kept so secret, as none knew of 
it but the King, the Prince, my good 
friend, and Roxburghe. This was about 
Easter. On a sudden, it was resolved, that 
the Prince should, the Mid-summer after, 



* This was no other than Sir Robert Car, our author's 
ancient acquaintance. Their strife was now transferred 
from the Borders to the court. Sir Robert Car was 
created first Lord, and, secondly, Earl of Roxburghe. E. 



152 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

be created. Some ten days before the time 
it was whispered, that Roxburghe should 
be chamberlain, and at last it came to my 
ears. The court was fully persuaded, that 
none but myself should hold the place, 
which made me think it would be a great 
disgrace to me to miss it, and made me 
use the best means I could to get the place, 
and prevent them. After I got the true 
knowledge of all their proceedings, and 
how the King and Prince were brought in 
by a wile to give the place from me, I ad- 
dressed myself to the Queen, told her all I 
knew, and how secretly it had been plot- 
ted and wrought. I humbly besought her 
Majesty to interpose for me. When she 
had heard me, she could not believe that 
Roxburghe, or his friend, durst, or would 
seek so eminent a place under her son, 
without her knowledge and consent. But 
when, by Roxburghe's wife, she was assured 
of it, she sent for me again, and told me, it 
was true that I had said, but bade me 
trouble myself no further : her wrong was 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 155 

more than mine, and she would right both 
herself and me. Presently she made known, 
both to Roxburghe, and his friend, in what 
disdain she took it, that they durst undertake 
such a business without acquainting her, 
and vowed they should buy the neglect of 
her at a dear rate. She kept her word ; for 
Roxburghe was presently sent into Scot- 
land in her high disgrace, and never after 
saw her ; my other friend felt her heavy 
hand a long time after. And at the Prince's 
creation, which was the Michaelmas * fol- 
lowing, 1 was sworn the Prince's cham- 
berlain, and continued of his bed-chamber. 
Thus did God raise up the Queen to take 
my part, and by her means the storm that 
was so strongly plotted against me, was 
brought to nought. 

Then was the Prince's house settled ; 
and amongst other officers, Sir John Vil- 
liers was sworn of his bed-chamber, and 
Sir Robert Car ; the one made master of 

* Anno 1616. 



154 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

the robes, the other keeper of the privy- 
purse : Sir James Fullerton groom of the 
stole, and Mr Murray secretary. 

Long before this, had I married my 
daughter to my Lord Wharton's son * and 
heir. My eldest son -f was, at the Prince's 
creation, made a Knight of the Bath, (who 
was then newly come from travel,) and by 
the Queen s means, my youngst son J was, 
before his creation, sworn a groom of his 
bed-chamber. My wife waited on the 
Queen, and myself on the Prince ; so (for 
the time it lasted) we lived at no great 
charge ; and most of the little means we 
had, we employed as it came in to the bet- 
tering of our estate. 

But it continued not long thus ; for with- 
in four years after, or thereabouts, the 
Queen died ; § her house dissolved, and 
my wife was forced to keep house and fa- 
mily, which was out of our way a thousand 



# Sir Thomas Wharton. f Henry. 

J Thomas. § She died in 1619. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 155 

pounds a-year that we saved before. In 
this state I continued, till I came to the 
age of almost sixty years, in favour, both 
with the King and my Master. About this 
time, * I married my eldest son, -f to the 
eldest daughter of Sir Lionell Cranfield, 
afterwards Earl of Middlesex, and Lord 
Treasurer of England. Not long after, by 
my Master's means, the King made me 
Baron of Leppington. $ Two years after, 
the Prince and my Lord of Buckingham 
went from Theobalds to New-hall. The 
17th of February, the King went to New- 
market. There the Prince appointed my- 
self and the rest of his servants to meet him 
two days after. But the first news that 
we heard, was, that the Prince and my 
Lord Duke were gone for Spain. § This 
made a great hub-bub in our court, and 



* I believe in the year l6<20. 
f Henry. 
% Anno 1621. 

% They set out post for Spain, February 17 th, and ar- 
rived at Madrid, March 7th, 1623. 



156 MEMOIRS OP ROBERT CARY, 

in all England besides. I was appointed to 
go after him by sea, and to carry such ser- 
vants of his with me, as the Prince had left 
word should come after, and such others as 
the King allowed. I had a large commis- 
sion made me for the government, and to 
keep in good order those that went with 
me. From Portsmouth we set sail about 
the midst of March, and the fourth day 
after we landed at St Andero's, in Biscay ; 
and there I received a letter from the 
Prince, that all his servants should return 
back in the ship they came, only myself 
and my Lord Compton should come to 
him to Madrid. To Madrid I came some 
six days after ; before which time, the 
Prince had remanded his servants to come 
to him. There I stayed some month * with 
the Prince ; by which time he found that 
his stay there would be longer than he ex- 
pected. He considered my years, and fear- 

* About a month. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 157 

ed the heat of the year coming fast on, 
would much distemper me, and therefore 
persuaded me to return for England, and 
sent a great many of his servants back with 
me. We returned in the ship we came, 
and landed at Portland, in Dorsetshire. 
There I took post, and came to Greenwich 
to the King. I delivered him the Prince's 
letters ; and after some discourse had with 
me, I kissed his hand, took my leave of 
him, and came to my own house, where I 
remained very privately, until the Prince's 
return. I must not forget God's goodness 
towards me in this journey. I was then 
upon sixty-three years of age, (years not 
well agreeing with such a journey,) but 
God so blessed me from the first to the 
last, as I continued in perfect health ; and 
all the time I was in Spain, I had such a 
stomach to my meat, as in my younger 
days I never had the like. 

At Michaelmas after, to the comfort of 
all true English hearts, the Prince landed 



158 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, 

at Portsmouth. * After this, the match was 
broken off with Spain, and a treaty in 
France for the King's youngest sister. My 
Lord of Holland-f* was employed ambassa- 
dor for this service, and my Lord of Car- 
lisle J sent after him for assistance. Many 
to's and fro's there were before it was con- 
cluded. Two years or more were spent in 
this affair; and when it was come to a 
full point of agreement on all parts, the 



# The Prince having departed from Madrid, Septem- 
ber 9th, and setting sail from St Andero the 11th, land- 
ed in England, October 5th, 1623. 

f Henry Rich, Earl of Holland. He was beheaded 
immediately after his royal master, at the same time 
with the Duke of Hamilton, and the noble-spirited Lord 
Capel. The Earl of Clarendon, in characterising Lord 
Holland, says, " He was a well-bred man, and a fine 
gentleman in good times, but too much desired to en- 
joy ease and plenty, when the King could have neither, 
and did think poverty the most insupportable evil that 
could befal any man in this world." 

% Sir James Hay, mentioned in page 134. Might we 
not ask the critical Mr Osborne, could the ambassador 
Jive too splendidly, or appear too magnificent, in a treaty 
of marriage for the King's only son, and the immediate 
heir of the crown? 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. 159 

King fell sick of a tertian ague at Theobalds, 
and, to the grief of all true hearts, died of 
that sickness, the 27th day of March, in 
the twenty-second year of his reign. 

And now began afresh, in my old years, 
new troubles ; for whereas heretofore all 
Princes, when they came to be Kings, had 
an especial care to prefer their old servants, 
or at least to let them hold the places they 
had under them whilst they were Princes ; 
it fell out otherwise with us. For myself 
being his chamberlain, and the rest, (as the 
master of the horse, treasurer, comptroller, 
and secretary,) were all discharged of our 
places ; and those that served in those of- 
fices in the old King's time, continued in 
them still. But the King dealt very gra- 
ciously with us ; and for the loss of our 
places, gave the most of us good rewards. 
To myself, in particular, he gave (to me 
and my heirs for ever) five hundred pounds 
per annum in fee farm, which was a very 
bountiful gift, and a good satisfaction for 
the loss of my office ; and especially be- 



160 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT GARY, 

cause I continued my place of gentleman 
of the bed-chamber. 

In May after, the King went to Dover 
to meet his new Queen, * and by the time 
he came back with her to Whitehall, the 
plague grew so hot in London, as none 
that could tell how to get out of it, would 
stay there. The King and Queen removed 
to Hampton Court. The infection grew 
hotter and hotter. The parliament was re- 
moved to Oxford. The plague grew hot 
there too ; so that what for that and other 
discontents,*!* the parliament was dissolved. 
The King went in progress to Beauly. The 
Queen returned to Oatlands J and None- 



# Henrietta Maria, daughter of the Great Henry IV., 
by Mary de Medici ; a princess who proved more per- 
nicious to this kingdom, than the pestilence which ra- 
ged at her arrival. 

•f The discontents were many, and some of them just. 
They were as hot and infectious as the plague itself. 

J A royal seat in Surrey; the jointure-house of Queen 
Henrietta Maria ; pulled down, and even the materials 
sold, soon after the catastrophe of King Charles in 1649. 



EARL OF MONMOUTH. l6l 

such,* and I and my family to Kenel- 
worth,-f where we stayed the summer. To- 
wards Michaelmas the plague began to 
decrease. The King returning from his 
progress, was met by the Queen at Salis- 
bury, at which place I found his Majesty, 
leaving my wife and family at Kenelworth. 
I waited on him till he returned southward, 
and also waited on him at Windsor. 

Some ten days before Christmas, the King 
and Queen went to keep their Christmas 
at Hampton Court, and I returned to Ke- 
nelworth, and stayed there ten days after 
Christmas, where I heard of a new Parlia- 
ment to begin the 8th of February, and 
that the King was to be crowned at West- 
minster the 6th thereof.J I returned to 



* Another royal seat in Surrey, built by Henry VIIL, 
in all the magnificence of that time. 

f In Warwickshire, where are now the remains of 
one of the finest castles in England. 

t 1626. 



162 MEMOIRS OF ROBERT CARY, &C. 

court, and, among others that the King 
pleased to give honours to at his corona- 
tion, I was created Earl of Monmouth. 



APPENDIX. 



Sir Robert Carey to the Lord Hunsdon his 
Father. 

May it Please your Lordship t* understande, that yes- 
terday yn the afternoone, I stood by her Majestie, as 
she was at cards yn the presens chamber. She cawlde 
me too her, and asket me, when you ment too go too 
Barwyke ? I towlde hyr, that you determynde to begyn 
your journey presently after Whytsontyd. She grew yn- 
too a grate rage, begynnynge with Gods Wonds, that 
she wolde set you by the feete, and sende another yn 
your place, if you dalyed with her thus ; for she 
wolde nott be thus dalyed with all. I towlde her, that 
with as much possyble speed as myght be, you wolde 
departe ; and that your lyyng att London thys fortnyght 
was too no other ende but to make provysion for your 
jorney. She anseryd me, that you have byn goynge 
from Chrystmas too Ester, and from Ester to Whytson- 



164 APPENDIX. 

day ; but if you differde the tyme any longer, she wolde 
appoynt some uther yn your place ; and thys message 
she commandyd me to sende you. 

Your Lps. humble and obedyent Sunne, 

R. Carey. 

To the Ryghte Honorable my very goode 
L. and Father , my L. of Hunsdon. 



APPENDIX. 165 



Henry Lord Hunsdon to Lord JBurghley, 
Lord Treasurer of England. 

My very goode Lord, 

Havynge alwayse founde your L. rny goode L. and 
frende more then any uther, I am the bowlder to ac- 
quaynte your L. with a harde aceydente too me, such as 
I thynke your L. wolde as hardly beleve, as I did lyttell 
look for ytt. 

Thys day at dyner I recevyd a letter from my sunn 
Robartt Carey, of such speechys as hyr Majestie ensy'd 
unto hym upon Sunday towchynge me; which, for bre- 
vity sake, I sende your L. the copy of; wheryn I thynk 
myself so hardly delte with all by her Majestie, as I can- 
nott beyre it, nor obay itt yn suche sort, as she com- 
mands it. 

My L. I have never refusyd to serve hyr ; howsoever 
she commandyd me, so longe as I was able ; and be- 
ynge now, by reason of the maryagys of my two daw- 
ters, and besydes theyr maryage-mony, was att as grete 
chargys with the tyme of theyr maryagys, as theyr ma- 
ryage-mony came unto; beynge now commanded too 
repayre to Barwyke, I desyerde only att hyr Majestie's 
hands the lone of 10001. too be payde upon rny enter- 
taynment of Barwyke and the wardenery, wherof too be 



166 APPENDIX. 

repayde the one halfe at Mychalmas next, and the uther 
halfe at our Lady day, whyche to be borrowyde of a 
marchant, the interest comes nott too lOOl. and trewly 
I wolde nott have made so symple a seute unto hyr, but 
thatt apon thes occasyons aforesayde, I hade layde all 
my platte to gage, without which, I cowlde nott, with 
any credytt, go thyther; and hopynge, that she wolde 
consyder so farr of my nede, I have stayde herapon, the 
rather knowynge the matters both of Scotland and the 
Bordars too be yn suche state, as ther was no suche ne- 
cessitye of my said hasty goynge to Barwike. But syns 
I fynde her Majestie so small care of my necessyte, and 
so redy to threten me, not only with the placynge of 
summe uther yn my place, butt also to impryson me ; 
syns my suytt ys no better consydered of by hyr, and 
that her Majestie ys so reddy apon so small cawse too 
deale thus (nott hardly) but extremely with me, as 
I had the ofFyce of Barwyke of her Majestie spe- 
cyally, and only by your L. goode meanes agenste the 
wylls of utliers, who sought too putt me by ytt, too 
preferre uthers of thyer frends unto ytt ; so am I most 
hartely too pray your L. that as you were the only 
brynger of me to that office, wheryn I hope I have per- 
formyd my dewty, bothe for her Majestie's servys, and 
for the goode of the hole countrey, bothe too her Ma- 
jestie's honor, the benyfitt of the countrey, the commen- 
dacyon of your L. who preferde me unto yet, and too 
myne owne credytt, yn despight of myn ennymys wher- 
soever ; so I humbly pray yoiir L., thatt syns I see, that 



APPENDIX. 167 

hyr Majestie ys so redely to place surae uther yn ytt, 
that your L. wyl be a meanes, that I may with her favor 
departe withall, as I dyd with hyr goode favour receive 
ytt : for an offyce of that charge ys not to be governed 
by any, that hath no better credytt or countenance of 
hyr Majestie's then I have; for I am nott ignorent, 
what qwarrels may be pykt too any mane, that hathe 
such a charge, if the Prynce shall be reddy, nott only 
too heare every complaynte, whyther ytt be false oi\ 
trew; and so apon imagynacion too, condemn without 
cause. Well! my L. Gode send them joy, that shall 
succede me ; and too do her Majestie no worse servys 
theryn, then I have done ; assurynge your L. that I will 
parte from ytt with a better wyll, (fyndyng my selfe yn 
no better grace with hyr Majestie than I do,) then ever 
I was too receive ytt. I am the bowlder too trouble 
your L. thys muche, because I doo by thys bearer wryght 
lyttle les to hyr Majestie: and for any imprysonment 
she cane use too me, ytt shall redownde too hyr dysho- 
nor, bycause I,;neyther have nor wyll deserve ytt, and 
therfore ytt shall not troble me. 

Thus havynge byn over tedyous too your L., I com- 
mytt your L. too the tuycion of the Almighty. At 
Hunsdon, this 8 of June, 1584. 

Your L. to commande, 

Hunsdon. 

To the Ryght Honorable, and my very good L., 
my X. Burghley, L. Hyghe Tresurar of Eng- 
land. 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA; 



OR, 

OBSERVATIONS 

ON THE LA.TE 

QUEEN ELIZABETH, 

HER TIMES AND FAVOURITES. 

WRITTEN BY 

Sir ROBERT NAUNTON, 

MASTER OF THE COURT OF WARDS. 






FRAGMENTA REGALIA; 

OR, 

OBSERVATIONS 

ON THE LATE 

QUEEN ELIZABETH, 

HER TIMES AJfD FAVOURITES. 



THE QUEEN. 

To take her in the original, she was daugh- 
ter to Henry the Eighth, by Anne Bullen, 
the second of six wives which he had, and 
one of the maids of honour to the divorced 
Queen Katherine of Austria, (or, as they 
now style it,) Infanta of Spain, and from 
thence taken into the royal-bed. 

That she was of a most noble and roy- 
al extract by her father, will not fall in- 
to question ; for on that side there was dis- 



172 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

imbogued into her veins, by a confluence 
of blood, the very abstract of all the great- 
est houses in Christendom ; and remarkable 
it is, concerning that violent desertion of 
the royal house of the Britons, by the in- 
vasion of the Saxons, and afterwards by 
the conquest of the Normans, that by their 
vicissitude of times, and through a discon- 
tinuance, almost a thousand years, the roy- 
al sceptre should fall back into the current 
of the old British blood, in the person of 
her renowned grandfather, Henry the Se* 
venth, together with whatsoever the Ger- 
man, Norman, Burgundian, Castalian, and 
French achievements, with the intermar- 
riages which eight hundred years had ac- 
quired, incorporated, and brought back 
into the old royal reign. 

By her mother, she was of no sovereign 
descent, yet noble, and very ancient in the 
name and family of Bullen ; though some 
erroneously brand it with a citizen's rise, 
or original, which was yet but of a second 
brother, who, as it were, divining the great- 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA, 175 

ness and lustre, to come to his house, was 
sent into the city to acquire wealth, ad 
(Kdijicandum antiquum domum, unto whose 
achievements (for he was Lord Mayor of 
London *) fell in, as it was averred, both 
the blood and inheritance of the eldest 
brother, for want of issue male ; by which 
accumulation, the house, within a few de- 
scents, mounted in culmen honoris, and was 
suddenly elated into the best families of 
England and Ireland, as Howard, Or- 
mund, Sackvile, and divers others. Ha- 
ving thus touched, and now leaving her 
strip, I come to her person ; and as she 
came to the crown by the decease of her 
brother and sister; under Edward, she was 
his, and one of the darlings of fortune ; for 
besides the consideration of blood, there 
was between these two Princes, a concur- 
rency and sympathy in their natures and 



* Her great-grandfather, Sir Geoffrey Boleyn. He 
married a daughter of the Lord Hastings. 



174 rRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

affections, together with the celestial bond, 
(conformity in religion,) which made them 
one, and friends; for the King ever called 
her his sweetest and dearest sister, and was 
scarce his own man, she being absent, 
which was not so between him and the 
Lady Mary, * Under his sister, she found 
her condition much altered : for it was re- 
solved, and her destiny had decreed to set 
her an apprentice in the school of afflic- 
tion, and to draw her through the ordeal 
fire of trial, the better to mould and fashion 
her to rule and sovereignty : which finish- 
ed, and Fortune calling to mind, that the, 
time of her servitude was expired, gave up 
her indentures, and therewith delivered up 
into her custody a sceptre, as a reward for 
her patience, which was about the twenty- 
sixth year of her age ; a time in which (as 
for externals) she was full blown, so was 



# Queen Elizabeth, when trying a pen, usually wrote 
the name of her beloved brother Edward. 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 175 

she for her internals grown ripe, and sea- 
soned with adversity, and in the exercise of 
her virtue ; for it seems Fortune meant no 
more, than to shew her a piece of her va- 
riety and changeableness of her nature, and 
so to conduct her to her destined felicity. 
She was of personage tall, of hair and com- 
plexion fair, and therewith well favoured, 
but high-nosed, of limbs and feature neat, 
and which added to the lustre of those exte- 
rior graces, of stately and majestic comport- 
ment, participating in this more of her father 
than mother, who was of an inferior allay, 
plausible, or, as the French hath it, more 
debonaire, and affable virtues, which might 
well suite with majesty, and which descend- 
ing, as hereditary to the daughter, did ren- 
der her of a more sweeter temper, and en- 
deared her more to the love and liking of 
the people, who gave her the name and 
fame of a most gracious and popular 
Prince ; the atrocity of her father's nature 
being rebated in hers, by the mother's 
sweeter inclinations ; for to take, and that 



176 PRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

no more than the character out of his own 
mouth, he never spared man in his anger, 
nor woman in his lust. 

If we search further into her intellectuals 
and abilities, the whole course of her go- 
vernment deciphers them to the admiration 
of posterity ; for it was full of magnanimi- 
ty tempered with justice and piety, and to 
speak truly, noted but with one act or 
taint, all her deprivations, either of life, or 
liberty, being legal and necessitated. She 
was learned (her sex, and the time consi- 
dered) beyond common belief; for letters 
about this time, and somewhat before, be- 
gan to be of esteem, and in fashion, the 
former ages being overcast with the mists 
and fogs of the Roman ignorance ; and it 
was the maxim that over-ruled the forego- 
ing times, that ignorance was the mother 
of devotion. Her wars were a long time 
more, in the auxiliary part, in assistance of 
foreign Princes and states, than by inva- 
sion of any, till common policy advised it 
for a safer way, to strike first abroad than 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 177 

at home to expect the war, in all which 
she was felicious and victorious. The 
change and alteration of religion upon the 
instant of her accession, (the smoke and 
fire of her sister's martyrdoms, scarcely 
quenched,) was none of her least remarka- 
ble accounts ; but the support and esta- 
blishment thereof, with the means of her 
subsistence amidst so powerful enemies 
abroad, and those many domestic prac- 
tices, were, methinks, works of inspiration, 
and of no human providence, which, on 
her sister's departure, she most religiously 
acknowledged, ascribing the glory of her 
deliverance to God alone ; for she received 
the news both of the Queen's death, and 
her proclamation, by the general consent of 
the House, and the public suffrage of the 
people ; whereat, falling on her knees, (af- 
ter a good time of respiration,) she uttered 
this verse of the psalms, a domino factum 
est istud, et est mirabile in oculis nostris, 
which we find to this day on the stamp of 

M 



178 ERAGMENTA REGALIA. 

her gold ; with this on her silver, Posui Deum 
adjutorem meum. Her ministers and instru- 
ments of state, such as were participes cu- 
rarum 9 and bare a great part of the bur- 
den, were many, and those memorable, but 
they were only favourites, not minions ; 
such as acted more by her own princely 
rules and judgments, than by their own 
wills and appetites, which she observed to 
the last : for we find no Gaveston, Vere, 
or Spencer, to have swayed alone, during 
forty-four years, which was a well settled 
and advised maxim ; for it valued her the 
more, it awed the most secure, and it took 
best with the people, and it starved all 
emulations, which are apt to rise and vent 
in obloquious acrimony, (even against the 
Prince,) where there is only, a major pa- 
latii. 

The principal note of her reign will be, 
that she ruled much by faction and parties, 
which herself both made, upheld, and 
weakened, as her own great judgment ad- 
vised ; for I dissent from the common re- 

13 



ERAGMENTA REGALIA. 179 

ceived opinion, thai my Lord of Leices- 
ter was absolute and above all in her 
grace. And though I come somewhat short 
of the knowledge of those times, yet (that 
I might not rove, and shoot at random) I 
know it from assured intelligence, that it 
was not so; for proof whereof, (among many 
that I could present,) I will both relate a 
short, and therein a known truth. And it 
was thus : Bowyer, a gentleman of the 
black-rod, being charged by her express 
command to look precisely to all admis- 
sions into the privy-chamber, one day stay- 
ed a very gay captain, and a follower of 
my Lord of Leicester's, from entrance ; for 
that he was neither well known, nor a 
sworn servant to the Queen ; at which re- 
pulse, the gentleman bearing high ou my 
Lord's favour, told him, he might per- 
chance procure him a discharge. Leices- 
ter coming into the contestation, said pub- 
licly, (which was none of his wont) that he 
was a knave, and should not continue long 
in his office ; and so turning about to go 



180 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

into the Queen, Bowyer (who was a bold 
gentleman, and well beloved) stept before 
him, and fell at her Majesty's feet, related 
the story, and humbly craves her Grace's 
pleasure ; and whether my Lord of Leices- 
ter was King, or her Majesty Qeeen : where- 
unto she replied, with her wonted oath, 
(God's death,) my Lord, I have wished 
you well, but my favour is not so locked 
up for you, that others shall not partake 
thereof; for I have many servants, unto 
whom I have, and will, at my pleasure, be- 
queath my favour, and likewise resume the 
same ; and if you think to rule here, I will 
take a course to see you forthcoming ; I 
will have here but one mistress, and no 
master ; and look that no ill happen to 
him, least it be severely required at your 
hands; which so quelled my Lord of Leices- 
ter, that his feigned humility was long af- 
ter one of his best virtues. Moreover, the 
Earl of Sussex, then lord-chamberlain, was 
his professed antagonist to his dying day ; 
and for my Lord of Hunsdon, and Sir 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 181 

Thomas Sackville, after lord-treasurer, (who 
were all contemporaries,) he was wont to 
say of them, that they were of the tribe 
of Dan, and were noli me tangeres, imply- 
ing, that they were not to be contested 
with, for they were indeecLof the Queen's 
near kindred ; from whence, and in more 
instances, I conclude, that she was abso- 
lute and sovereign mistress of Jher ^graces ; 
and that all those to whom she distributed 
her favours, were never more than tenants 
at wil], and stood on no better ground 
than her princely pleasure, and their own 
good behaviour; and this also I present 
as a known observation, that she was 
(though very capable of counsel) absolute 
enough in her own resolutions, which was 
ever apparent even to her last, in that her 
aversation to grant Tyrone * the least drop 
of her mercy, though earnestly and fre- 
quently advised ; yea, wrought only by the 

* The unfortunate treaty with Tyrone certainly went 
far to prepare for the ruin of Essex. 



182 FRAGMEINTTA REGALIA. 

whole council of state, with very many 
pressing reasons ; and as the state of her 
kingdom then stood, (I ma}^ speak it with 
assurance,) necessitated arguments. If we 
look into her inclination, as it is disposed, 
either to magnificence, or frugality, we 
shall find in them many notable considera- 
tions ; for all her dispensations were so poi- 
sed, as though Discretion and Justice had 
both agreed to stand at the beam, and see 
them weighed out in due proportion ; the 
maturity of her years and judgment meet- 
ing in a concurrency, and at such an age 
as seldom lapseth to excess. To consider 
them apart, we have not many precedents 
of her liberality, or of any large donatives 
to particular men ; my Lord of Essex 
book of Parks only excepted, which was a 
princely gift ; and some few more of a lesser 
size to my Lord of Leicester, Hatton, and 
others. Her reward consisted chiefly in 
grants of leases, of offices, places of judica- 
ture; but for ready money, and in any great 
sums, she was very sparing, which we part- 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 183 

ly conceive was a virtue, rather drawn out 
by necessity, than her nature ; for she had 
many layings out, and to her last period. 
And I am of opinion with Sir Walter Raw- 
leigh, that those many brave men of our 
times, and of the militia, tasted little more 
of her bounty than in her grace, and good 
word with their due entertainment; for she 
ever paid the soldiers well, which was the 
honour of her times, and more than her 
great adversary of Spain could perform : so 
that when we come to the consideration of 
her frugality, the observation will be little 
more than that her bounty and it were so 
woven together, that the one was suited 
by an honourable way of spending, the 
other limited by a necessitated way of spa- 
ring. The Irish action we may call a ma- 
lady, and a consumption of her times ; for 
it accompanied her to her end, and it was 
of so profuse and vast an expense, that it 
drew near a distemperature of state, and of 
passion in herself; for toward her last, she 
grew somewhat hard to please, her arms 



184 TBAGMENTA REGALIA. 

being accustomed to prosperity, and the 
Irish persecution not answering her expec- 
tation and wonted success for a good while; 
it was an unthrifty and inauspicious war, 
which did much disturb and mislead her 
judgment; and the more, for that it was a 
precedent which was taken out of her own 
pattern ; for, as the Queen (by way of diver- 
sion) had, at the coming to the crown, sup- 
ported the revolted States of Holland, so 
did the King of Spain turn the trick on her- 
self towards her going out, by cherishing 
the Irish rebellion ; where it falls into con- 
sideration, what the state of the kingdom 
and the crown revenues were then ably to 
embrace and endure ; if we look into the 
establishment of those times, with the list 
of the Irish army, considering the defeat- 
ments of Blackwater, with all precedent 
expenses, as it stood from my Lord of Es- 
sex, undertaking to the surrender of King- 
sale under the General Mountjoy, and 
somewhat after, we shall find the horse and 
foot troops were for three or four years to- 



FRACMJETNTTA REGALIA. 185 

gether much about 20,000. Which, be- 
sides the naval charge, which was a depen- 
dant of the same war, in that, the Queen 
was then forced to keep in continual pay, 
a strong fleet at sea, to attend the Spanish 
coasts and ports, both to alarm the Spa- 
niard, and to interrupt his forces designed 
for the Irish assistance ; so that the charge 
of that war alone did cost the Queen 
300,0001. per annum at least, which was 
not the moiety of her other disbursements, 
an expense which (without the public aid) 
the state, and the royal receipts, could not 
have much longer endured; which out of 
her own frequent letters and complaints to 
the deputy Mountjoy, for cashiering part 
of that list as soon as he could, may be col- 
lected, for the Queen was then driven in- 
to a strait. 

We are naturally prone to applaud the 
times behind us, and to vilify the present ; 
for the current of her fame carries it to this 
day, how royally and victoriously she lived 
and died, without the grievance and grudge 



186 FliAGMENTA REGALTA. 

of the people ; yet that truth may appear 
without retraction, from the honour of so 
great a Princess, it is manifest she left 
more debts unpaid, taken upon the credit 
of her privy-seals, than her progenitors did, 
or could have taken up that way in a hun- 
dred years before her; which was an en- 
forced piece of state, to lay the burden on 
that horse that was best able to bear it, at 
the dead lift, when neither her receipts 
could yield her relief at the pinch, nor 
the urgency of her affairs endure the de- 
lays of a parliamentary assistance : and for 
such aids, it is likewise apparent, that she 
received more, and with the love of the 
people, than any two of her predecessors, 
that took most ; which was a fortune strain- 
ed out of the subject, through the plausi- 
bility of her comportment, and, as I would 
say, without offence, the prodigal distribu- 
tion of her graces to all sorts of subject. 
For I believe no Prince living, that was so 
tender of honour, and so exactly stood for 
the preservation of sovereignty, that was so 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 187 

great a courtier of her people, yea, of the 
Commons, and that stoopt and descended 
lower in presenting her person to the pub- 
lic view, as she past in her progresses and 
perambulations, and in the ejaculation of 
her prayers on her people : and truly, though 
much may be given in praise of her mag- 
nanimity, and therewith comply with her 
parliaments, and for all that, come off at 
last with honour and profit ; yet must we 
ascribe some part of the commendation to 
the wisdoms of the times, and the choice 
of parliament-men ; for I find not that they 
were at any time given to any violent or per- 
tinacious dispute, elections being made of 
grave and discreet persons, not factious and 
ambitious of fame ; such as came not to 
the House with a malevolent spirit of con- 
tention, but with a preparation to consult 
on the public good, rather to comply than 
contest with her Majesty. Neither do I 
find that the House was at any time weak- 
ened and pestered with the admission of 
too many young heads, as it hath been of 



188 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

later times, which remembers me of Recor- 
der Martin's speech, about the tenth of our 
late sovereign Lord King James, when 
there were accounts taken of forty gentle- 
men, not above twenty, and some not ex- 
ceeding sixteen, which moved him to say, 
that it was the ancient custom for old men 
to make laws for young ones ; but that 
then he saw the case altered, and that 
there were children elected unto the great 
council of the kingdom, which came to in- 
vade and invert nature, and to enact laws 
to govern their fathers. Sure we are, the 
House always took the common cause into 
their consideration ; and they saw the Queen 
had just occasion, and need enough to use 
their assistance, neither do I remember that 
the House did ever capitulate or prefer their 
private to the public, &c. The Queen's 
necessities but waited their times, and in 
the first place they gave their supply, and 
according to the exigency of her affairs, yet 
failed not at last to obtain what they de- 
sired : so that the Queen and her parlia- 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA, 



189 



ments had ever the good fortune to depart 
in love, and on reciprocal terms, which are 
considerations which have not been so ex- 
actly observed in our last assemblies, as 
they might, and I would to God they had 
been, for considering the great debt left on 
the King, and in what incumbrances the 
house itself had then drawn him, his Ma- 
jesty was not well used, though I lay not 
the blame on the whole suffrage of the 
House, where he had many good friends ; 
for I dare avouch, had the House been freed 
of half a dozen of popular and discontent- 
ed persons, such (as with the fellow that 
burnt the temple at Ephesus) w r ould be 
talked of, though but for doing of mischief, 
I am confident the King had obtained 
that which, in reason, and at his first ac- 
cession, he ought to have received freely, 
and without any condition. But pardon 
the digression, which is here remembered 
not in the way of aggravation, but in true 
zeal to the public good, and presented in 
caveat to future times; for I am not igno- 



190 FKAGMENTA REGALIA. 

rant how the spirit of the kingdom now 
moves to make his Majesty amends on any 
occasion, and how desirous the subject is 
to expiate that offence at any rate, may it 
please his Majesty graciously to make trial 
of his subjects affection, and at what price 
they now value his goodness and magnani- 
mity. But to our purpose ; the Queen was 
not to learn, that as the strength of her 
kingdom consisted in the multitude of her 
subjects, for the security of her person rest- 
ed in the love and fidelity of her people, 
which she politicly affected (as it hath been 
though t)some what beneath the height of her 
spirit, and natural magnanimity. Moreover 
it will be a true note of her providence, that 
she would always listen to her profit ; for she 
would not refuse the informations of mean 
persons, with purposed improvement, and 
had learned the philosophy of hoc agere, to 
look into her own work, of the which there 
is a notable example of one Carwarden, an 
under officer of the custom-house, who ob- 
serving his time, presented her with a pa- 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 191 

per, shewing how she was abused in the 
under renting of her customs, and, there- 
withal, humbly desired her Majesty to con- 
ceal him ; for that it did concern two or 
three of her great counsellors, whom custo- 
mer Smith had bribed with 2001. a man, 
so to loose the Queen 2,0001. per annum ; 
which being made known to the Lords, 
they gave strict order, that Carwarden 
should not have access to the back stairs ; 
till at last her Majesty smelling the craft, 
and missing Carwarden, she sent for him 
back, and encouraged him to stand to his 
information, which the poor man did so 
handsomely, that within the space of ten 
years, he brought Smith to double his rent, 
or to leave the customs to new farmers ; so 
that we may take this also into observa- 
tion, that there were of the Queen's coun- 
cil, that were not in the catalogue of 
saints. 

Now as we have taken a view of some 
particular notions of her times, her nature, 
and necessities, it is not without the text, 



192 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

to give a short touch on the helps and ad- 
vantages of her reign, which were without 
parallel ; for she had neither husband, bro- 
ther, sister, nor children to provide for, 
who as they are dependents of the crown, 
so do they necessarily draw maintenance 
from thence, and do oftentimes exhaust 
and draw deep, especially when there is an 
ample fraternity of the blood-royal, and of 
the Princes of the blood, as it was in the 
time of Edward the Third, and Henry the 
Fourth ; for then when the crown cannot, 
the public ought to give them honourable 
allowance, for they are the honour and 
hopes of the kingdom, and the public which 
enjoys them hath a like interest in them 
with the father that begot them ; and our 
common-law, which is the heritance of the 
kingdom, did ever of old provide aids for 
the primo-genitures, and the eldest daugh- 
ter ; so that the multiplicity of courts, and 
the great charge which necessarily follow a 
King and Queen, a Prince and the royal 
issue, was a thing which was not in rerum 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. lfJS 

natura, during the space of forty years, and 
which by time was worn out of memory, 
and without the consideration of the pre- 
sent times ; insomuch, that the aids given 
to the late and right noble Prince Henry, 
and to his sister the Lady Elizabeth, were 
at first generally received for impositions 
of a new coinage. Yea, the late imposi- 
tions for knighthood, (though an ancient 
law,) fell also into the imputation of a tax 
of novelty ; for that it lay long covered in 
the embers of division, between the houses 
of York and Lancaster, and forgotten, or 
connived at by the succeeding princes ; so 
that the strangeness of the observation, and 
the difference of those latter reigns, is, that 
the Queen took up beyond the power of 
the law, which fell not into the murmur of 
the people, and her successors nothing but 
by warrant of the law, which, nevertheless, 
was conceived (through disuse) to be inju- 
rious to the liberty of the kingdom. 

Now before I come to any further men- 
tion of her favourites, (for hitherto I have 

N 



194 FRACrMENTA 11EGALIA. 

delivered but some obvious passages, there- 
by to prepare and smooth a way for the 
rest that follows,) it is requisite that I touch 
on the relics of the other reign, I mean the 
body of her sister's council of state, which 
she retained entire ; neither removing, nor 
discontenting any, although she knew them 
averse to her religion, (and in her sister's 
time perverse towards her person,) and pri- 
vate to her troubles and imprisonment ; a 
prudence which was incompatible with her 
sister's nature, for she both dissipated and 
persecuted the major part of her brother's 
council : but this will be of certainty, that 
how compliable soever and obsequious she 
found them, yet for a good space she made 
little use of their councils, more than in 
the ordinary course of the board : for she 
held a dormant table in her own princely 
breast, yet she kept them together, and 
their places without any sudden change ; 
so that we may say of them, that they were 
of the court, not of the council, for whilst 
she amazed them witb-a kind of premissive 
11 



PRAGMENTA REGALIA. 195 

disputation, concerning the points contro- 
verted by both churches, she did set down 
her own reservations without their privity, 
and made all her progressions gradations. 
But so that the tents of her secrecy with 
intent of her establishment, were pitched 
before it was known where the court would 
sit down ; neither do I find that any of her 
sister's council of state were either repug- 
nant to her religion, or opposed her do- 
ings, (Englefield, master of the horse ex- 
cepted,) who withdrew himself from the 
board, and shortly after from out her domi- 
nions, * so pliable and obedient they were 
to change with the times and their Princes ; 
and of this there will fall in here a relation, 
both of recreation, and of known truth. 
Pawlet, Marquis of Winchester, and lord- 
treasurer, having served then four princes 
in as various and changeable season, that I 
may well say, time nor any age hath yield- 
ed the like precedent. 


* Sir Francis Englefield. He retired into Spain. 



196 FBAGMENTA REGALIA. 

This man being noted to grow high in 
her favour, (as his place and experience re- 
quired,) was questioned by an intimate 
friend of his, how he stood up for thirty years 
together, amidst the changes and reigns of 
so many chancellors and great personages ? 
why, quoth the Marquis, ortus sum ex sa- 
lice, non ex quercu, I was made of the plia- 
ble willow, not of the stubborn oak ; and 
truly the old man hath taught them all, es- 
pecially William, Earl of Pembroke, for 
they two were always of the King's reli- 
gion, and over-zealous professors. Of this 
it is said, that being both younger brothers, 
(yet of noble houses,) they spent what was 
left them, and came on trust to the court : 
where upon the bare stock of their wits, 
they began to traffic for themselves, and 
prospered so well, that they got, spent, and 
left more than any subjects from the Nor- 
man conquest to their own times ; where- 
unto it hath been prettily replied, that they 
lived in a time of dissolution. 
To conclude then, of any of the former 



TRAGMENTA REGALIA. 197 

reign, it is said, that these two lived and 
died, chiefly, in her favour. The latter, up- 
on his son's marriage with the Lady Ka- 
therine Gray, was like utterly to have lost 
himself; but at the instant of the consum- 
mation, apprehending the insafety and dan- 
ger of an intermarriage with the blood-roy- 
al, he fell at the Queen's feet, where he 
both acknowledged his presumption with 
tears, and projected the cause and the di- 
vorce together; and so quick he was at 
his work, for it stood him upon, that upon 
repudiation of the lady, he clapt up a mar- 
riage for his son the Lord Herbert, with 
Mary Sidney, daughter to Sir Henry Sid- 
ney, then lord-deputy of Ireland, * the 



# This incident did not happen in the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth, but in that of Queen Mary. The unfortunate 
Lady Jane Gray, and her sisters, Lady Catherine and 
Lady Mary, were married in the month of May 1553. 
Lady Jane's fate is well known. Lady Catherine was 
united to Henry Lord Herbert, son and heir of William 
Earl of Pembroke, then one of Lady Jane's firm friends. 
But when Pembroke turned with the tide to Queen 
Mary, he caused the union to be dissolved by divorce. 



108 FIIAGMEN'TA REGALIA. 

blow falling on Edward, late Earl of Here- 
ford, who (to his cost) took up the divorced 
lady, of whom the Lord Beauchamp was 
born, and William Earl of Hereford is de- 
scended. * I come now to present those 
of her own election, which she either ad- 
mitted to her secrets of state, or took into 
her grace and favour; of whom in their or- 



Mary Sydney was not, however, as alleged by Nauntori, 
the immediate successor of Lady Catherine Grey ; for 
the Lord Herbert was married after the divorce to 
Anne, daughter of George Earl of Shrewsbury, and on 
her death to Mary Sidney, as mentioned in the text. 

* The unfortunate Lady Catherine Grey, when di- 
vorced from Lord Herbert, was married privately to Ed- 
ward Seymour, Earl of Hertford. For this offence, they 
were both committed to the Tower, and their marriage 
was annulled by the obsequious Archbishop of Canter- 
bury. But as the unfortunate pair found means to have 
intercourse, even in their captivity, Hereford was accu- 
sed in the star-chamber, 1 . of debauching a virgin of 
the blood-royal ; 2. of breaking prison ; 3. of having in- 
tercourse with her a second time. And he was fined 
50001. on each charge, besides being condemned to 
nine years imprisonment. The poor Lady Catherine 
died in prison, after a long captivity. So jealous was 
Queen Elizabeth of all who could pretend the least title 
to her succession. 



FHAGMENTA REGALIA. 1.99 

der, I crave leave to give unto posterity a 
cautious description, with a short charac- 
ter, or draught of the persons themselves ; 
for without offence to others, I would be 
true to myself, their memories and merits 
distinguishing them of the militia from the 
togati, and of these she had as many, and 
those as able ministers, as any of her pro- 
genitors. 



200 FRAGMENTA REGALIA 



LEICESTER. 

It will be out of doubt, that my Lord of 
Leicester was one of the first whom she 
made master of the horse ; he was the 
youngest son, then living, of the Duke of 
Northumberland, beheaded primo Maria, 
and his father was that Dudley, which our 
histories couple with Empson ; and both 
so much infamed for the caterpillars of the 
Commonwealth, during the reign of Henry 
thf Seventh; who being a noble extract, 
was executed the first year of Henry the 
Eighth, but not thereby so extinct, but that 
he left a plentiful estate, and such a son, 
who, as the vulgar speaks it, could live 
without the tear ; for out of the ashes of 
his father's infamy, he rose to be a Duke, 
and as high as subjection could permit, or 
sovereignty endure ; and though he could 
not find out any appellation to assume the 
crown in his own person, yet he projected, 
and very nearly affected it for his son Gil- 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 201 

bert, by intermarriage with the Lady Jane 
Grey, and sq by that way to bring it about 
into his loins. Observations which, though 
they lie behind us, and seem impertinent to 
the text, yet are they not much extrava- 
gant, for they must lead and shew us how 
the after passages were brought about with 
the dependencies, and on the hinges of a 
collateral workmanship : and truly it may 
amaze a well-settled judgment, to look 
back into those times, and to consider how 
this Duke could attain to such a pitch of 
greatness, his father dying in ignominy, 
and at the gallows his estate confiscate, 
and that for peeling and polling by the 
clamour and crucifige of the people ; but 
when we better think upon it, we find that 
he was given up, but as a sacrifice to 
please the people, not for any offence com- 
mitted against the person of the King ; so 
that upon the matter he was a martyr of the 
prerogative, and the King in honour could 
do no less than give back to his son the 
privilege of his blood, with the acquirings 
of his father's profession ; for he was a law- 



202 1RAGMENTA REGALIA. 

yer, and of the King's council, at law be- 
fore he came to be exinteriohus consiliis, 
where besides the licking of his own fin- 
gers, he got the King a mass of riches, and 
that not with the hazard, but the loss of 
his fame and life for the King's father's 
sake. Certain it is, that his son was left 
rich in purse and brain, which are good 
foundations, and full to ambition ; and it 
may be supposed, he was on all occasions 
well heard of the King, as a person of mark 
and compassion in his eye, but I find not 
that he did put up for advancement during 
Henry the Eighth's time, although a vast 
aspirer and provident storier. It seems he 
thought the King's reign was much given 
to the falling sickness, but espying his 
time fitting, and the sovereignty in the 
hands of a pupil prince, he thought he 
might as well then put up for it as the best ; 
for having then possession of blood and a 
purse, with a head -piece of a vast extent, he 
soon got honour, and no sooner there, but 
he began to side it with the best, even with 



IltAGMENTA REGALIA. 203 

the Protector : and in conclusion, got his 
and his brother's heads, still aspiring, till he 
expired, in the loss of his own ; so that pos- 
terity may, by reading the father and the 
grandfather, make judgment of the son ; 
for we shall find that this Robert (whose 
original we have now traced the better to 
present him) was inheritor of the genius 
and craft of his father; and Ambrose, of 
the estate, of whom hereafter we shall make 
some short mention. 

We take him now as he was admitted 
into the court, and the Queen's favour, 
where he was not to seek to play his part 
well and dexterously. But his play was 
chiefly at the foregame, not that he was a 
learner of the latter, but he loved not the 
after wit, for they report (and I think not 
untruly) that he was seldom behind hand 
with his gamesters, and that they always 
went away with the loss. 

He was a very goodly person, and singu- 
lar well featured, and all his youth well fa- 
voured, and of a sweet aspect, but high 



204 PRAGMEISTTA REGALIA. 

foreheaded, which as I should take it, was 
of no discommendation : but towards his 
latter end, (which with old men, was but 
a middle age,) he grew high coloured and 
red faced ; so that the Queen, in this, had 
much of her father, for, excepting some of 
her kindred, and some few that had hand- 
some wits in crooked bodies, she always took 
personage in the way of her election ; for 
the people hath it to this day in proverb, 
King Harry loved a man : being thus in 
her grace, she called me to mind, the suf- 
ferings of his ancestors, both in her father's 
and sister's reigns, and restored his and his 
brother's blood, creating Ambrose the el- 
der, Earl of Warwick, and himself, Earl of 
Leicester, &c. And he was ex primitiis, or 
of her first choice, for he rested not there, 
but long enjoyed her favour ; and therewith, 
much what he listed, till time and emulation 
(the companions of great ones) had resol- 
ved on his period, and to cover him at his 
setting in a cloud at Cornebury, not by so 
violent a death, and by the fatal sentence 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 205 

of judicature, as that of his father's and 
grandfather's was, but as it is suggested by 
that poison which he had prepared for 
others, wherein they report him a rare ar- 
tist ; * I am not bound to give credit to all 
vulgar relations, or to the libels of the 
times, which are commonly forced, and 
falsified suitable to the moods and hu- 
mours of men, in passion, and discontent j 
but that which leads me to think him no 
good man, is, (amongst others of known 
truth,) that of my Lord of Essex death in 
Ireland, and the marriage of his lady yet 
living, which I forbear to press, in regard 
that he is long since dead, and others li- 
ving, whom it may concern, -f- 



* He died of a fever at Cornebury Park, in Oxford- 
shire, on a journey to his magnificent Castle of Kenel- 
worth, 4th September, 1588. The suspicion of poison, 
insinuated by Naunton, seems only to have arisen from 
the suddenness of his death. 

f Leicester took to his second wife, Lettice Knolles, 
widow of Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, and was cur- 



206 FllAGMENTA REGALIA. 

To take him in the observations of his 
letters and writings, (which should best set 
him off,) for such as fell into my hands, I 
never yet saw a style or phrase more seem- 
ing religious, and fuller of the streams of 
devotion, * and were they not sincere, I 
doubt much of his well being, and I may 
fear he was too well seen in the aphorisms 
and principles of Nicholas the Florentine, 
and in the reaches of Caesar Borgia ; and 
hitherto I have only touched him in his 
courtship. I conclude him in his lance : he 
was sent governor by the Queen to the Uni- 
ted States of Holland, where we read not of 
his wonders, for they say that he had more 
of Mercury than Mars, and that his device 



rently accused of having poisoned her husband to make 
way for the match. 

# He ordinarily affected an extravagant zeal for the 
Protestant religion, received the eucharist frequently, 
and pretended great respect for the more strict clergy, 
who, in turn, attached themselves to his party. See 
Memoirs of the Sidneys, Vol. I. p, 54. Grotius de Rebus 
Belgicis> Lib. 5. 



PRAGMENTA REGALIA. 20? 

might have been, without prejudice to the 
great Caesar, — veni^ vidi, redii. * 



* The preceding Memoirs of Cary have a sneer at 
Leicester's Low-Country exploits, p. 11. 



208 FRAGMENTA REGALIA 



SUSSEX. . 

His co-rival, before mentioned, was Tho- 
mas Ratcliff, Earl of Sussex, who in his 
constellation was his direct opposite, for 
he was indeed one of the Queen's martial* 
ists, and did very good service in Ireland, 
at her first accession, till she recalled him 
to the court, where she made him Lord 
Chamberlain ; but he played not his game 
with that cunning and dexterity as Leices- 
ter did, who was much the more facer e 
courtier, though Sussex was thought much 
the honester man, and far the better sol- 
dier, but he lay too open on his guard. 

He was a goodly gentleman, and of a 
brave noble nature, true and constant to 
his friends and servants ; he was also of a 
very noble and ancient lineage, honoured 
through many descents by the title of Vis- 
counts Fitzwalters: Moreover there was 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 209 

such an antipathy in his nature to that of 
Leicester's, that, being together in court, 
and both in high employments, they grew 
to a direct frowardness, and were in conti- 
nual opposition, the one setting the watch, 
the other the centinel, each on the other's 
actions and motions ; for my Lord of Sus- 
sex was of a great spirit, which, backed with 
the Queen's special favour, and supported 
by a great and ancient inheritance, could 
not brook the other's empire : Insomuch 
as tixo Queen, upon sundry occasions, had 
somewhat to do to appease and attain them, 
until death parted the competition, and let 
the place of Leicester, who was not long 
alone without his rival in grace and com- 
mand ; and to conclude, this favourite, it 
is confidently affirmed, that, lying in his last 
sickness, he gave this caveat to his friends : 
I am now passing into another world, and 
I must now leave you to your fortunes, and 
to the Queen's grace and goodness; but 
beware of the gipsey, meaning Leicester, 

o 



210 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

for he will be too hard for you all ; you 
know not the best so well as I do. * 



* In the libels called " Leicester's Commonweal th" 
and M Leicester's Ghost.," he is accused of having caused 
Sussex to be poisoned : and that he endeavoured to 
poison his favour with the Queen, is evident from many 
passages in the correspondence of Sir Ralph Sadler, 
during the great Northern Insurrection in 12th Eliza- 
beth. 



FKAGMENTA REGALIA. 211 



LORD BURLEIGH. 

I now come to the next, which was Se- 
cretary William Cecill ; for on the death of 
the old Marquis of Winchester, he came 
up in his room ; a person of a most subtle 
and active spirit, who though he stood not 
altogether by the way of constellation, and 
making up of a part and faction, for he 
was wholly intentive to the service of his 
mistress, and his dexterity, experience, and 
merit, challenged a room in the Queen's 
favour, which eclipsed the other's over 
seeming greatness, and made it appear, 
that there were others that steered and 
stood at the helm besides himself, and 
more stars in the firmament of her grace 
than Ursa Major, or the Bear with the rag- 
ged staff. * 



* The cognisance of Leicester, assumed by his fa- 
ther when created Earl of Warwick. It is well known 



212 FUAGMENTA REGALIA. 

He was born, as they say, in Lincoln- 
shire ; but, as some upon knowledge aver, 
of a younger brother of the Cecills of Hart- 
fordshire, a family, of mine own know- 
ledge, though now private, yet of no mean 
antiquity ; who being exposed, and sent to 
the city, as poor gentlemen use to do their 
younger sons, he came to be a rich man on 
London-Bridge; and purchasing in Lin- 
colnshire, where this man was born, he was 
sent to Cambridge, then to the Inns of 
Court, and so he came to serve the Duke 
of Somerset in the time of his Protector- 
ship as secretary ; and having a pregnancy 
to great inclinations, he came by degrees 
to a higher .conversation with the chiefest 
affairs of state and councils ; but on the 
fall of the Duke, he stood some years in 
umbrage, and without employment, till the 
state found and needed his abilities ; and 
though we find not that he was taken into 



as the badge of the renowned king-making Earl of 
Warwick. 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 21S 

any place during Mary's reign, unless (as 
some have said) towards the last, yet the 
council on several occasions made use of 
him ; and at the Queen's entrance he was 
admitted Secretary of State, afterwards he 
was made Master of the Court of Wards, 
then Lord Treasurer, a person of most re- 
quisite abilities ; and indeed the Queen be- 
gan then to need, and to seek out for men 
of both garbs : and so I conclude, and rank 
this great instrument of state amongst the 
Togati, for he had not to do with the 
sword, more than as the great paymaster 
and contriver of war, which shortly follow- 
ed, wherein he accomplished much through 
his theorical knowledge at home, and his 
intelligence abroad, by unlocking the coun- 
cils of the Queen s enemies. 

We must now take, and that of truth, 
into observation, that until the tenth of 
her reign, her times were calm and serene, 
though sometimes a little overcast, as the 
most glorious sun-risings are subject to sha- 
dowings and droppings in ; for the clouds 



%lk FKAGMENTA REGALIA. 

of Spain, and vapours of the Holy League, 
began then to disperse and threaten her se- 
renity : Moreover, she was then to provide 
against some intestine storms, which began 
to gather in the very heart of her kingdom, 
all which had a relation and corresponden- 
cy, each with the other, to dethrone her, 
and to disturb the public tranquillity, and 
therewithal, as a principal work, the es- 
tablished religion ; for the name of Recu- 
sant began then, and first, to be known to 
the world ; and till then, the Catholics were 
no more than church Papists, but were com- 
manded by the Pope's express letters, to 
appear, and forbear church going, as they 
tender their Holy Father, and the holy 
Catholic church their mother: so that it 
seems the Pope had then his aims to take 
a true muster of his children, but the 
Queen had the greater advantage ; for she 
likewise took tale of her apostate subjects, 
their strength, and how many they were 
that had given up their names unto Baal, 
who then, by the hands of some of his pro- 



rilAGMENTA REGALIA. 215 

selytes, fixed his bulls on the gates of Paul's, 
which discharged her subjects of all fideli- 
ty, and laid siege to the received faith, and 
so under the veil of the next successor to 
replant the Catholic religion ; so that the 
Queen had then a new task and work in 
hand, that might well awake her best pro- 
vidence, and required a muster of men and 
arms, as well as courtships and councils; 
for the times began to be quick and ac- 
tive, fitter for stro^er motions than those of 
the carpet and measure ; and it will be a 
true note of her magnanimity, that she 
loved a soldier, and had a propension in 
her nature to regard, and always to grace 
them ; which the courtiers taking into ob- 
servation, took it as an invitation to win 
honour, together with her Majesty's favour, 
by exposing themselves to the wars, espe- 
cially when the Queen's and the affairs of 
the kingdom stood in some necessity of a 
soldier; for we have many instances of the 
sallies of the nobility and gentry, yea, and 
out of the court, and her privy favourites, 



216 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

that had any touch or tincture of Mars in 
their inclinations, and to steal away with- 
out license, and the Queen's privity, which 
had like to have cost some of them dear ; so 
predominant were their thoughts and hopes 
of honour growing in them, as we may tru- 
ly observe in the expositions of Sir Philip 
Sidney, my Lord of Essex, Mountjoy, and 
divers others, whose absence, and the man- 
ner of their eruptions, was very distasteful 
to her : whereof I can here add a true, and 
no impertinent story, and that of the last 
Mountjoy, who having twice or thrice sto- 
len away into Britain, (where under Sir 
John Norris, he had then a company,) 
without the Queen's leave and privity ; she 
sent a messenger unto him, with a strict 
charge to the general to see him sent home. 
When he came into the Queen's presence, 
she fell into a kind of reviling, demanding 
how he durst go over without her leave ; 
" serve me so/' quoth she, " once more, 
and I will lay you fast enough for running ; 
you will never leave it until you are knock- 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 217 

cd on the head, as that inconsiderate fellow 
Sidney was ; you shall go when I send you, 
in the mean time see that you lodge in the 
court, (which was then at Whitehall,) where 
you may follow your book, read, and dis- 
course of the wars/' 

But to our purpose : it fell out happily to 
those, and, as I may say, to those times, that 
the Queen, during the calm of her reign, 
was not idle nor rocked asleep with security, 
for she had been very provident in the re- 
paration and augmentation of her shipping 
and ammunition : and I know not, whe- 
ther by a foresight of policy, or an instinct 
it came about, or whether it was an act of 
her compassion, but it is most certain, that 
she sent levies, and no small troops, to the 
assistance of the revolted states of Holland, 
before she had received any affront from 
the King of Spain, that might deserve or 
tend to a breach in hostility, which the Pa- 
pists, to this day, maintain, was the provo- 
cation and cause of the after wars : but 
omitting what might be said to this point, 



218 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

those Netherland wars were the Queen's 
seminaries, and the nurseries of very many 
brave soldiers ; and so were likewise the ci- 
vil wars of France (whither she sent five 
several armies) the fence-schools, that in- 
ured the youth and gallantry of the king- 
dom, and it was a militia wherein they 
were daily in acquaintance with the dis- 
cipline of the Spaniards, who were then 
turned the Queen's inveterate enemies. 

And this have I taken into observation, 
her dies halcionii, those years of hers which 
were more serene and quiet than those that 
followed, which, though they were not less 
propitious, as being touched more with the 
point of honour and victory, yet were they 
troubled, and ever clouded over, both with 
domestic and foreign machinations ; and it 
is already quoted, they were such as awa- 
kened her spirits, and made her cast about 
how to defend, rather by offending, and by 
the way of diverting to prevent all inva- 
sions than to expect them, which was a 
piece of policy of the times : and with thi$ 



ERAGMENTA REGALIA, 219 

I have noted the causes or principia of the 
wars following, and likewise pointed to the 
seed-plots from whence she took up those 
brave men and plants of honour, which act- 
ed on the theatre of Mars, and on whom 
she dispersed the rays of her grace, which 
were persons in their kinds of rare virtues, 
and such as might (out of height of merit) 
pretend interest to her favour, of which 
rank the number will equal, if not exceed 
that of the gown-men, in recount of whom 
I proceed with Sir Philip Sidney, 



220 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 

He was son to Sir Henry Sidney, Lord- 
Deputy of Ireland, and President of Wales, 
a person of great parts, and in no mean 
grace with the Queen. His mother was sis- 
ter to my Lord of Leicester ; from whence 
we may conjecture, how the father stood 
up in the place of honour and employment, 
so that his descent was apparently noble 
on both sides : For his education, it was 
such as travel and the University could af- 
ford, or his tutors infuse ; for after an in- 
credible proficiency in all the species of 
learning, he left the academical life for that 
of the court, whither he came by his un- 
cle's invitation, famed afore-hand by a no- 
ble report of his accomplishments, which, 
together with the state of his person, fra- 
med by a natural propension to arms, he 
soon attracted the good opinion of all men, 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 221 

and was so highly prized in the good opi- 
nion of the Queen, that she thought the 
court deficient without him : And whereas 
(through the fame of his deserts) he was in 
the election for the kingdom of Pole, she 
refused to further his advancement, not out 
of emulation, but out of fear to lose the 
jewel of her times. * He married the daugh- 
ter and sole heir of Sir Francis Walsing- 
ham, then secretary of state, a lady desti- 
nated to the bed of honour, who (after his 
deplorable death at Zutphen, in the Ne- 
therlands, where he was governor of Vitish- 
ing, at the time of his uncle's being there) 
was married to my Lord of Essex, and 
since his death, to my Lord of Saint Al- 
bons, all persons of the sword, and other- 
wise of great honour and virtue. 

They have a very quaint and factious 
figment of him, that Mars and Mercury 
fell at variance whose servant he should 



* See Memoirs of the Sidneys, p. 104, and Wood's 
Athena Oxon, Vol. I, p. 226. 



222 FltAGMENTA REGALIA. 

be : And there is an epigrammist that saith, 
that Art and Nature had spent their excel- 
lencies in his fashioning ; and fearing they 
should not end what they begun, they be- 
stowed him on Fortune, and Nature stood 
musing, and amazed to behold her own 
work. But these are the petulancies of 
poets. 

Certain it is, he was a noble and match- 
less gentleman ; and it may be justly said, 
without hyperboles of fiction, as it was of 
Cato Uticensis, that he seemed to be born 
to that only which he went about ;— ver- 
satilis ingenii, as Plutarch hath it ; but to 
speak more of him, were to take him less. 



FUAGMENTA REGALIA. 223 



SIR FRANCIS WALSINGHAM. 

Sir Francis Walsingham, as we have said, 
had the honour to be Sir Philip Sidney's 
father-in-law. He was a gentleman, at first, 
of a good house, but of a better education, 
and from the university travelled for the 
rest of his learning. He was doubtless the 
best linguist of the times ; but knew best 
how to use his own tongue, whereby he 
came to be employed in the chiefest affairs 
of state. He was sent ambassador into 
France, and stayed there a lieger long, in 
the heat of the civil wars, and at the same 
lime that Monsieur was here a suitor to 
the Queen ; and, if I be not mistaken, he 
played the very same part there, as since 
Gundamore did here. At his return, he 
was taken principal secretary, and was one 
of the great engines of state, and of the 
times, high in the Queen's favour, and a 



224 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

watchful servant over the safety of his mis- 
tress. 

They note him to have had certain cu- 
riosities, and secret ways of intelligence 
above the rest ; but I must confess I am 
to seek wherefore he suffered Parry to play 
so long on the hook, before he hoisted him 
up ; and I have been a little curious in the 
search thereof, though I have not to do 
with the arcana imperii. * 

For to know is sometimes a burden ; and 
I remember that it was Ovid's crimen aut 
error ) that he saw too much. But I hope 
these are collaterals of no danger : but that 
Parry intending to kill the Queen, made 

# William Parry, doctor of laws, a bigotted Papist. 
He pretended to reveal to the Queen and her ministers 
the plots which had been formed against her by Mor- 
gan and other fugitive Catholics. For this purpose he 
obtained repeated access to the Queen's person, har- 
bouring all the while, as he himself confessed, the pur- 
pose of assassinating her. His treason was discovered 
by the confession of Edmund Neville, his accomplice ; 
although Parry was not immediately secured, but suffer- 
ed, as Naunton expresses it, to play on the hook for some 
time afterward. 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 225 

the way of his access by betraying of 
others, and impeaching of the priests of his 
own correspondency, and thereby had ac- 
cess and conference with the Queen, and 
also oftentimes familiar and private con- 
ference with Walsiogham, will not be the 
query of the mystery ; for the secretary 
might have had end of discovery on a fur- 
ther maturity of the treason, but that after 
the Queen knew Parry's intent, why she 
should then admit him to private discourse, 
and Walsingham to suffer it, considering 
the condition of all assailings, and permit 
him to go where and whither he listed, and 
only on the security of a dark centinel set 
over him, was a piece of reach and hazard 
beyond my apprehension. 

I must again profess, that having read 
many of his letters, for they are commonly 
sent to my Lord of Leicester and Burleigh 
out of France, containing many fine pas- 
sages and secrets, yet if I might have been 
beholding to his ciphers, whereof they are 

p 



226 FRAGHENTA REGALIA. 

full, they would have told pretty tales of 
the times : but I must now close up, and 
rank him amongst the Togati, yet chief of 
those that laid the foundation of the Dutch 
and French wars, which was another piece 
of his finesse, and of the times, with one ob- 
servation more, that he was one of the great 
allays of the Austerian embracements ; * for 
bothhimself, and Stafford that preceded him, 
might well have been compared to the fiend 
in the gospel, that sowed his tares in the 
night, so did they their seeds of division in 
the dark ; and it is a likely report that 
they father on him, at his return, that the 
Queen said unto him, with some sensibili- 
ty, of the Spanish designs on France, ma- 
dam, I beseech you be content not to fear; 
the Spaniard hath a great appetite, and an 
excellent digestion ; but I have fitted him 
with a bone for these twenty years, that 
your Majesty shall have no cause to doubt 



* Sir Robert quaintly intimates, that he disconcerted 
the alliances formed by Austria. 

7 



ERAGMENTA REGALIA. 227 

him, provided, that if the fire chance to 
slack which I have kindled, you will be 
ruled by me, and now and then cast in 
some English fuel, which will revive the 
flame. 



228 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 



WILLOUGHBY. * 

My Lord Willoughby was one of the 
Queen's first swordsmen ; he was of the 
ancient extract of the Bartues, but more 
ennobled by his mother, who was Duchess 
of Suffolk. 

He was a great master of the art mili- 
tary, and was sent general into France, and 
commanded the second of five armies, that 
the Queen sent thither in the aid of the 
French. I have heard it spoken, that had 
he not slighted the court, but applied him- 
self to the Queen, he might have enjoyed 
a plentiful portion of her grace ; and it 
was his saying, (and it did him no good,) 

# Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby of Eresby, dis- 
tinguished popularly by the epithet of " Brave Lord 
Willoughby." He was general of the English forces in 
Flanders, after the recal of Leicester, and distinguish- 
ed himself greatly. 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 229 

that he was none of the reptilia, intimating, 
that he could not creep on the ground, and 
that the court was not in his element ; for 
indeed as he was a great soldier, so was he 
of a suitable magnanimity, and could not 
brook the obsequiousness and assiduity of 
the court, and as he then was somewhat 
descending from youth, happily he had an 
animam revertendi, and to make a safe re- 
treat. 



230 FRAGMENTA REGALIA 



SIR NICHOLAS BACON.* 

I come to another of the Togati, Sir 
Nicholas Bacon, an arch piece of wit and 
wisdom ; he was a gentleman, and a man 
of law, and of great knowledge therein ; 
whereby, together with his other parts of 
learning and dexterity, he was promoted 
to be keeper of the great seal : And being 
of kin to the Treasurer Burleigh, had also 
the help of his hand to bring him into the 
Queen's favour, for he was abundantly fa- 
cetious, which took much with the Queen, 
when it was suited with the season, as he 
was well able to judge of his times : he 
had a very quaint saying, and he used it 
often to good purpose, that he loved the 



# Lord-keeper of the great seal, and the first who,, in 
that office, was invested with the powers of a lord chan- 
cellor. 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 231 

jest well, but not the loss of his friend : 
He would say, that though he knew wins- 
quisque sua fortunes faber was a true and 
good principle, yet the most in number 
were those that marred themselves, but I 
will never forgive that man that loseth him- 
self to be rid of his jest. 

He was father to that refined wit, which 
since hath acted a disastrous part on the 
public stage, and of late sate in his father's 
room as lord chancellor. Those that lived 
in his age, and from whence I have taken 
this little model of him, gives him a lively 
character ; and they decipher him for ano- 
ther Solon, and the Synon of those times, 
such a one as QEdipus was in dissolving of 
riddles; doubtless he was as able an in- 
strument ; and it was his commendation, 
that his head was the maul, (for it was a 
great one,) and therein he kept the wedge 
that entered the knotty pieces that came 
to the table. And now I must again fall 
back to smooth and plain a way to the rest 
that is behind, but not from the purpose. 



232 PRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

There were about these times two rivals 
in the Queen's favour, old Sir Francis 
Knowls, controller of the house, * and Sir 
Henry Norris, whom she called up at a 
parliament, to sit with the peers in the 
higher House, as Lord Norris of Recot, who 
had married the daughter and heir of the 
old Lord Williams of Tain, a noble person, 
and to whom, in the Queen's adversity, she 
had been committed to safe custody, and 
from him had received more than ordinary 
observances, -f- Now such was the good- 
ness of the Queen's nature, that she neither 

* Sir Francis Knowls, or Knollys, whose sister was 
married to Secretary Walsingham. He was vice-cham- 
berlain, treasurer of the household, and knight of the 
garter* 

*j- During the reign of Queen Mary, Elizabeth, when 
removed from her confinement in the Tower to Wood- 
stock, was placed under the guardianship of Sir John 
Williams, afterwards Lord Williams of Tame, and Sir 
Henry Benefield. The former was distinguished by the 
courtesy, the latter by the churlish severity of his con r 
duct towards their royal charge. As we see that Eliza- 
beth did not forget to reward the former, it may be 
mentioned to her honour, that the only vengeance she 
took of her jailor Benefield, was to assure him, he should 



I?RAGMENTA REGALIA. 233 

forgot the good turns received from the 
Lord Williams, neither was she unmindful 
of this Lord Norris, whose father, in her 
father's time, and in the business of her 
mother, died in a noble cause, and in the 
justification of her innocency. * 



have the custody of any state prisoner, whom she de- 
sired should be confined with peculiar rigour. 

* Henry Norris, groom of the stole, unjustly execu- 
ted, on account of alleged adultery with Ann Bullen, 
1536. 



234 ERAGMENTA REGALIA. 



LORD NORRIS. 

My Lord Norris had, by this lady, an 
ample issue, which the Queen highly re- 
spected ; for he had six sons, and all mar- 
tial brave men ; the first was William his 
eldest, and father to the late Earl of Berk- 
shire; Sir John, vulgarly called General 
Norris ; Sir Edward, Sir Thomas, Sir Hen- 
ry, and Maximilian, men of an haughty 
courage, and of great experience in the con- 
duct of military affairs : and, to speak in 
the character of their merit, they were such 
persons of such renown and worth, as fu- 
ture times must out of duty owe them the 
debt of an honourable memory. 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 235 



KNOWLS. 

Sir Francis Knowls was somewhat of the 
Queen's affinity, and had likewise no in- 
competent issue ; for he had also William 
his eldest, and since Earl of Banbury ; Sir 
Thomas, Sir Robert, and Sir Francis, if I 
be not a little mistaken in their names and 
marshalling ; and there was also the Lady 
Lettiee, a sister of these, who was first Coun- 
tess of Essex, and after of Leicester ; and 
these were also brave men in their times and 
places, but they were of the court and car- 
pet, not led by the genius of the camp. 

Between these two families there was 
(as it falleth out amongst great ones and 
competitors for favour) no great correspon- 
dency : and there were some seeds, either 
of emulation or distrust, cast between them, 
which, had they not been disjoined in the 
residence of their persons, as it was the for- 



236 PRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

tune of their employments, the one side 
attending the court, the other the pavi- 
lion, surely they would have broken out 
into some kind of hostility, or at least 
they would have wrestled one in the other 
like trees encircled with ivy ; for there was 
a time when both these fraternities being 
met at court, there passed a challenge be- 
tween them at certain exercises, the Queen 
and the old men being spectators, which 
ended in a flat quarrel amongst them all ; 
and I am persuaded, though I ought not 
to judge, that there were some relics of 
this feud that were long after the causes of 
the one families (almost utter) extirpation, 
and of the others im prosperity. For it was 
a known truth, that so long as my Lord of 
Leicester lived, who was the main pillar of 
the one side, as having married the sister, 
none of the other side took any deep root- 
ing in the court; though otherwise they 
made their ways to honour by their swords : 
and that which is of more note, (consider- 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 237 

ing my Lord of Leicester's use of men of 
arms, being shortly after sent governor to 
the revolted states, and no soldier himself,) 
is, that he made no more account of Sir 
John Norris, a soldier then deservedly fa- 
moused, * and trained from a page, under 
the discipline of the great Captain of Chris- 
tendom, the Admiral Castilion, and of 
command in the French and Dutch wars 
almost twenty years. It is of further ob- 
servation, that my Lord of Essex, after 
Leicester's decease, though initiated to 
arms, and honoured by the general, in the 
Portugal expedition ; whether out of insti- 
gation, as it hath been thought, or out of 
ambition and jealousy, to be eclipsed and 
overshadowed by the fame and splendour 
of this great commander, loved him not in 
sincerity, -f Moreover, certain it is, he 

* Witness his memorable retreat at the head of a 
thousand men only, through the Prince of Parma's whole 
army for three miles together. 

f Sir Francis Drake, and Sir John Nqrris, in con- 
junction, undertook an expedition, called at the time'. 



238 I'RAGMENTA REGxiLIA. 

not only crushed, and, upon all occasions, 
quelled the growth of this brave man, and 
his famous brethren, but therewith drew 
on his own fatal end, by undertaking the 
Irish action, in a time when he left the 
court, empty of friends, and full fraught 
with his profest enemies. * But I forbear 
to extend myself in any further relation 
upon this subject, as having lost some notes 



• The Journey of Portugal/' having for its object the in- 
vasion of that kingdom, Essex stole from court, and join- 
ed them without the Queen's leave, at which she was 
highly displeased. 

# Sir John Norris was sent into Ireland in 1596, with 
the title of lord-general. But his success against the 
rebels did not correspond with his high military charac- 
ter. He was imposed upon by Tyrone, and was at con- 
stant variance with the Lord-Deputy Russell. When 
the latter was recalled, Norris expected to succeed him 
in his office ; but through the influence of Essex, Lord 
Bourg was sent over as deputy, and Sir John was order- 
ed in a sort of disgrace to his government of Munster. 
This slight is supposed to have broken his heart, and he 
died in the arms of his brother Sir Edward in 1597. Es- 
sex, by disgracing this brave general, meant to pave the 
way for his own Irish expedition, and the success of his 
intrigue proved the immediate cause of his ruin. 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 239 

of truth, in these two noble families, which 
I would present, and therewith touched 
somewhat, which I would not, if the equi- 
ty of the narration would have admitted 
an intermission. 



240 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 



SIR JOHN PERROT. 

Sir John Perrot was a goodly gentleman, 
and of the sword ; and as he was of a very 
ancient descent, as an heir to many ab- 
stracts of gentry, especially from Guy de 
Bryan of Lawhern, so was he of a vast es- 
tate, and came not to the court for want ; 
and to these adjuncts, he had the endow- 
ments of courage and height of spirit, had 
it lighted on the allay of temper and discre- 
tion, the defect whereof, with a native free- 
dom and boldness of speech, drew him on 
to a clouded setting, and laid him open to 
the spleen and advantage of his enemies, 
amongst whom Sir Christopher Hatton was 
profest. He was yet a wise man, and a brave 
courtier, but rough, and participating more 
of active than sedentary motions, as being 
in his constellation destinated for arms. 
There is a query of some denotations, how 



1'RAGMENTA REGALIA. 241 

he came to receive his foil, and that in the 
catastrophe, for he was strengthened with 
honourable alliances, and the privy friend- 
ships of the court. 

My Lord of Leicester and Burleigh, both 
his contemporaries and familiars. But that 
there might be, as the adage hath it, falsi- 
ty in friendship, and we may rest satisfi- 
ed, that there is no dispute against fate. 

They quote him for a person that loved to 
stand too much alone, and on his own legs; 
of too often recesses, and discontinuance 
from the Queen's presence; a fault which 
is incompatible with the ways of court and 
favour. 

He was sent lord-deputy into Ireland, 
as it was thought, for a kind of haughti- 
ness of spirit, and repugnancy in councils ; 
or, as others have thought, the fittest per- 
son then to bridle the insolency of the 
Irish : and probable it is, that both these 
(considering the sway that he would have 
at the board, and head in the Queen's) con- 

Q 



242 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

curred, and did a little conspire his remove 
and his ruin. But into Ireland he went, 
where he did the Queen very great and 
many services, if the surplusage of the 
measure did not abate the value of the me- 
rit, as aftertimes found that to be no paro- 
dox ; for to save the Queen's purse, (which 
both herself and my Lord Treasurer Bur- 
leigh ever took for good services,) he im- 
posed on the Irish the charge of bearing 
their own arms, which both gave them the 
possession, and taught them the use, of 
weapons, which proved in the end a most 
fatal work, both in the profusion of blood 
and treasure. * 



# Perrot is generally allowed to have done good ser- 
vice in humbling the Irish rebels, although Spenser, na- 
turally partial to his predecessor Lord Gray, says, he 
reaped the fruit of another man's harvest. Both that 
poet and Camden remark the impolicy of habituating 
the Irish to the use of arms in Ulster. The reason al- 
leged, was, to enable them to oppose the Scottish J^les- 
men, by whom they were often invaded. But the in- 
conveniences of the system were discovered in the long 
and desperate rebellion of Tyrone. 

8 



ERAGMENTA REGALIA. 24S 

But at his return, and on some account 
sent home before, touching the state of the 
kingdom, the assiduous testimonies of her 
grace towards him, till by his retreat to his 
castle at Cary, where he was then building, 
and out of desire to be in command at 
home, as he had been abroad, together 
with the hatred and practice of Hatton, 
then in high favour, whom not long before 
he had too bitterly taunted for his dan- 
cing, he was accused of high treason, and 
for high words, and a forged letter, con- 
demned ; though the Queen, on the news 
of his condemnation, swore by her wonted 
oath, that they were all knaves. And they 
deliver with assurance, that on his return 
to the Tower after his trial, he said in oaths 
and in fury to the Lieutenant, Sir Owen 
Hopton, " what, will the Queen suffer her 
brother to be offered up as a sacrifice to 
the envy of my frisking adversaries ?" Which 
being made known to the Queen, and the 
warrant for his execution tendered and 
somewhat enforced, she refused to sign it, 



244 PllAGMENTA REGALIA. 

and swore he should not die, for he was an 
honest and a faithful man. And surely, 
though not altogether to set up our rest 
and faith upon tradition, and upon old re- 
ports, as that Sir Thomas Perrot, his father, 
was a gentleman of the privy-chamber to 
Henry the Eighth, and in the court marri- 
ed a lady of great honour of the King's fa- 
miliarity, which are presumptions of some 
implication : But if we go a little further, 
and compare his picture, his qualities, ges- 
ture, and voice, with that of the King's, 
which memory retains yet amongst us, 
they will plead strongly that he was a sub- 
reptious child of the blood-royal. ? 

Certain it is, that he lived not long in 



* Swift, in the Introduction to " Polite Conversa- 
tion/' tells us, perhaps, from Irish tradition, * Sir John 
Perrot was the first man of quality, whom I find upon 
record, to have sworn hy God's wounds. He lived in 
the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and was supposed to be 
a natural son of Henry Vlll., who might also, proba- 
bly, have been his instructor." 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 245 

the Tower, * and that after his decease, Sir 
Thomas Perrot, his son, (then of no mean es- 
teem with the Queen,) having before mar- 
ried my Lord of Essex's sister, since Countess 
of Northumberland, had restitution of all his 
lands, though after his decease, also, which 
immediately followed, the crown resumed 
his estate, and took advantage of the for- 
mer attainder. And to say the truth, the 
priest's forged letter was, at his arraign- 
ment, thought but as a fiction of envy, and 
was soon after exploded by the priest's own 
confession ; but that which most exaspera- 
ted the Queen, and gave advantage to his 

* Sir Thomas Perrot was charged upon very suspi- 
cious and slight evidence, with fomenting disturbances 
in Ireland, and holding correspondence with the Queen's 
enemies. But his real and unpardonable crime was, ha- 
ving abused the Queen by contumelious expressions. For 
it was a part of his singular character, that he used to 
break forth on slight provocation into the most furious 
and gross effusions of passion, which was no slight argu- 
ment of the truth of that tradition, which called him the 
son of Henry VIII., by Mary, wife to Thomas Perrot of 
Haroldstone, Pembrokeshire. He was condemned in 
\5Q2, and died in the Tower of a broken heart. 



246 FRAGMENTA IlEGALIA. 

enemies, was (as Sir Walter Rawleigh takes 
into his observation) words of disdain ; for 
the Queen, by sharp and reprehensive let- 
ters, had nettled him ; and shortly after 
sending others of approbation, commend- 
ing his service, and intimating an inva- 
sion from Spain, which he no sooner per- 
used, but he said publicly in the great 
chamber at Dublin : " Lo, now she is 
ready to piss herself for fear of the Spa- 
niard ; I am again one of her white boys/' 
Words which are subject to a various 
construction, and tended to some disrepu- 
tation of his sovereign, and such as may 
serve for instruction to persons in place of 
honour and command, to beware of the 
violences of nature, but especially of the 
exorbitances of the tongue. And so I con- 
clude him with this double observation, 
the one of the innocency of his intentions, 
exempt and clear from the guilt of treason 
and disloyalty ; the other of the greatness 
of his heart; for at his arraignment, he 
was so little dejected, by what might be 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 247 

alleged and proved against him, that he 
rather grew troubled with choler, and in 
a kind of exasperation despised his jury, 
though of the order of knighthood, and of 
the special gentry, claiming the privilege 
of trial by the peers and baronage of the 
realm, so prevalent was that of his native 
genius, and the haughtiness of his spirit, 
which accompanied him to his last, and till, 
without any diminution of courage, it brake 
in pieces the cords of his magnanimity ; for 
he died suddenly in the Tower, and when, 
it was thought, the Queen did intend his 
enlargement, with the restitution of his pos- 
sessions, which were then very great, and 
comparable to most of the nobility. 



248 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 



HATTON. 

Sir Christopher Hatton came into the 
court as his opposite ; Sir John Perrot was 
wont to say, by the Galliard ; for he came 
thither as a private gentleman of the Inns 
of Court in a mask ; and for his activity and 
person, which was tall and proportionable, 
taken into her favour. He was first made 
vice-chamberlain, and shortly afterward 
advanced to the place of lord-chancellor ;* 
a gentleman that, besides the graces of his 



* In 1587, on the death of Sir Thomas Bromley. He 
was more a courtier than a lawyer ; but spared no pains 
to supply his own personal deficiences, by consulting the 
ablest men of the profession. His death was hastened 
by a harsh and unexpected demand of the Queen, that 
he should refund a large sum received by him of first- 
fruits and tenths. It is remarkable, that Hatton died a 
short time before his adversary Sir John Perrot; yet 
had laid the plan of his ruin so surely, that he soon fol- 
lowed him to the grave. 



/ 



PRAGMENTA REGALIA, 249 

person and dancing, had also the adjecta- 
ments of a strong and subtle capacity, one 
that could soon learn the discipline and 
garb, both of the times and court. The 
truth is, he had a large proportion of gifts 
and endowments, but too much of the sea- 
son of envy ; and he was a mere vegetable 
of the court, that sprung up at night, and 
sunk again at bis noon. 



250 FRAGMENTA REGALIA, 



LORD EFFINGHAM. 

My Lord of Effingham, though a cour- 
tier betimes, yet I find not that the sun- 
shine of her favour broke out upon him, 
until she took him into the ship, and made 
him high admiral of England : for his ex- 
tract it may suffice, that he was the son of 
a Howard, and of a Duke of Norfolk. * 

And for his person, as goodly a gentle- 
man as the times had any, if nature had 
not been more intentive to complete his 



# He was the son of Lord William Howard, ninth son 
of Thomas, second Duke of Norfolk, created, in 1553, 
Lord Howard of Effingham. Charles, the second Lord 
Effingham, of whom Naunton here treats, was made 
knight of the garter in 1574, but did not attain the post 
of high admiral until 1584> He had the honour to 
command the English fleet during the ever memorable 
year of the Spanish Armada. 



ERAGMENTA REGALIA. 251 

person, than fortune to make him rich ; for 
the times considered, which were then ac- 
tive, and a long time after lucrative, he 
died not wealthy, yet the honester man; 
though it seems the Queen's purpose was 
to tender the occasion of his advancement, 
and to make him capable of more ho- 
nour, which at his return from Cardize ac- 
counts ; * she conferred it upon him, crea- 
ting him Earl of Nottingham, to the great 
discontent of his colleague, my Lord of 
Essex, who then grew excessive in the ap- 
petite of her favour ; and, in truth, was so 
exorbitant in the limitation of the sove- 
reign aspect, that it much alienated the 
Queen's grace from him, and drew others, 
together with the admiral, to a combina- 
tion, and to conspire his ruin. And though 
I have heard it from that party, I mean of 
the admiral's faction, that it lay not in his 
proper power to hurt my Lord of Essex, 



# Lord Effingham commanded in chief at sea, and 
the Earl of Essex at land in that exploit. 



252 FliAGMENTA REGALIA. 

yet he had more followers, and such as 
were well skilled in setting of the gin ; but 
I leave this to those of another age. 

It is out of doubt, that the admiral was 
a good, honest, and a brave man, and a 
faithful servant to his mistress ; and such a 
one as the Queen, out of her own princely 
judgment, knew to be a fit instrument for 
that service ; for she was no ill proficient in 
the reading of men, as well as books, and 
his sundry expeditions, as that aforemen- 
tioned, and eighty-eight, doth both express 
his worth, and manifest the Queen's trust, 
and the opinion she had of his fidelity and 
conduct. 

Moreover, the Howards were of the 
Queen's alliance, and consanguinity by her 
mother, which swayed her affection, and 
bent it toward this great house ; and it was 
a part of her natural propension, to grace 
and support ancient nobility, where it did 
not entrench, neither invade her interest ; 
for on such trespasses she was quick and 
tender, and would not spare any whatso- 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 253 

ever, as we may observe in the case of the 
Duke, and my Lord of Hertford, whom 
she much favoured and countenanced, till 
they attempted the forbidden fruit : * the 
fault of the last being, in the severest in- 
terpretation, but a trespass of encroach- 
ment ; but in the first, it was taken for a 
riot against the crown, and her own sove- 
reign power, and as I have ever thought 
the cause of her aversion against the rest 
of the house, and the Duke's great father- 
in-law Fitz Allen, Earl of Arundel ; a per- 
son of the first rank in her affections before 
these, and some other jealousies, made a 
separation between them ; this noble Lord, 
and the Lord Thomas Howard, since Earl 
of Suffolk, standing alone in her grace, the 
rest in umbrage. 



* Namely, by endeavouring to connect themselves 
with the succession to the crown. Norfolk, by bis un- 
happy scheme of marrying Queen Mary of Scotland; 
and Hertford, by his scarce less unfortunate connection 
with the Lady Catherine Grey, already mentioned by 
Naunton. 



254 1RAGMENTA REGALIA. 



SIR JOHN PACKINGTON. 

Sir John Packington was a gentleman of 
no mean family, and of form and feature 
no way despicable ; for he was a brave gen- 
tleman, and a very fine courtier ; and for 
the time which he stayed there, which was 
not lasting, very high in her grace ; but he 
came in, and went out, and through disas- 
siduity, drew the curtain between himself 
and the light of her grace, and then death 
overwhelmed the remnant, and utterly de- 
prived him of recovery ; and they say of 
him, that had he brought less to the court 
than he did, he might have carried away 
more than he brought, for he had a time 
on it, but an ill husband of opportunity. 



ERAGMENTA REGALIA. 255 



LORD HUNSDON.* * 

My Lord of Hunsdon was of the Queen's 
nearest kindred ; and on the decease of 
Sussex, both he and his son took the place 
of lord chamberlain. He was a fast man to 
his Prince, and firm in his friends and ser- 
vants ; and though he might speak big, 
and therein Avould be borne out, yet was he 
not the more dreadful, but less harmful, 
and far from the practice of my Lord of 
Leicester's instructions, for he was down 
right ; and I have heard those, that both 
knew him well, and had interest in him, 
say merrily of him, that his Latin and his 
dissimulation were both alike ; and that 



# Cary, Lord Hunsdon, father of Sir Robert Cary, 
Earl of Monmouth. See the preceding Memoirs. Naun- 
ton's character of this nobleman, is well supported by 
the style of his letter to Burleigh, p. l6o. 



256 FUAGMENTA I1EGALIA. 

his custom of swearing, and obscenity in 
speaking, made him seem a worse Chris- 
tian than he was, and a better knight of 
the carpet than he should be ; as he lived 
in a ruffling time, so he loved sword and 
buckler men, and such as our fathers were 
wont to call men of their hands ; of which 
sort he had many brave gentlemen that 
followed him ; yet not taken for a popular 
and dangerous person ; and that is one that 
stood amongst the Togati, of an honest 
stout heart, and such a one as, upon occa- 
sion, would have fought for his prince and 
his country ; for he had the charge of the 
Queen's person, both in the court, and in 
the camp at Tilbury. 



TRAGMENTA REGALIA. 257 



RALEIGH. 

Sir Walter Raleigh was one, that, it 
seems, fortune had picked out of purpose, 
of whom to make an example, or to use as 
her tennis-ball, thereby to shew what she 
could do ; for she tossed him up of no- 
thing, and to and fro to greatness, and from 
thence down to little more than to that 
wherein she found him, a bare gentleman ; 
not that he was less, for he was well de- 
scended, and of good alliance, but poor in 
his beginnings ; * and for my Lord of Ox- 
ford's jest of him (the jack and an upstart -f-) 



* He was the fourth son of Walter Raleigh of Far- 
del, near Plymouth-, a gentleman of ancestry, but with 
a large family and diminished estate. 

t The story bears, that while Queen Elizabeth was 
playing on the virginals, Lord Oxford remarking the 
motion of the keys, said, in covert allusion to Raleigh's 

K 



258 TRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

we all know, it savours more of emulation 
and his humour, than of truth ; and it is 
a certain note of the times, that the Queen 
in her choice never took into her favour a 
mere new man, or a mechanic, as Comines 
observes of Lewis the Eleventh of France, 
who did serve himself with persons of un- 
known parents ; such as was Oliver the 
barber, whom he created Earl of Dunoys, 
and made him ex secretis consiliis 9 and alone 
in his favour and familiarity; his approaches 
to the university and Inns of Court w r ere 
the grounds of his improvement; but they 
were rather excursions than sieges, or set- 
tings down, for he stayed not long in a 
place ; and being the youngest brother, 
and the house diminished in patrimony, he 
foresaw his own destiny, that he was first 
to rule, through want and disability,- to 
subsist otherwise, before he could come to 
a repose: and as the stone doth by long ly- 

favour at court, and the execution of Essex, <e When 
jacks start up, heads go down/' 

11 



FltAGMENTA REGALIA. 259 

ing gather moss, he first exposed himself 
to the land service of Ireland, (a militia,) 
which then did not yield him food and rai- 
ment, for it was ever very poor ; nor had he 
patience to stay there, though shortly af- 
ter he came thither again, * under the com- 
mand of my Lord Grey, but with his own 
colours flying in the field, having in the in- 
terim cast a new chance, both in the Low- 
Countries, and in a voyage to sea ; and if 
ever man drew virtue out of necessity, it 
was he, therewith was he the great exam- 
ple of industry ; and though he might then 
have taken that of the merchant to him- 
self, per mare, per terras, currit mercator ad 
Indos ; he might also have said, and truly 



# Oldys and Cayley, Raleigh's biographers, seem to 
deny that he was in Ireland more than once, when he 
served under Lord Grey as captain, But Naunton was 
likely to know the truth. The interim voyage was 
one in which Raleigh waited on the Duke of Anjou's 
agent Simier from Paris to England; and, in the expedi- 
tion to the Low Countries, was in attendance on the 
l)uke of Anjou himself when he went to Antwerp. 



260 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

with the philosopher, omnia mea mecum 
porto. For it was a long time before he 
could brag of more than he carried at his 
back; and when he got on the winning 
side, it was his commendation, that he took 
pains for it, and underwent many various 
adventures for his after perfection, and be- 
fore he came into the public note of the 
world. And it may appear how he came 
up, per ardua, per varies casus per tot des- 
crimina rerum, not pulled up by chance, 
or by any gentle admittance of fortune ; 
I will briefly describe his native parts, and 
those of his own acquiring, which were the 
hopes of his rising. 

He had in the outward man a good pre- 
sence, in a handsome and well compacted 
person, a strong natural wit, and a better 
judgment, with a bold and plausible tongue, 
whereby he could set out his parts to the 
best advantage ; and to these he had the 
adjuncts of some general learning, which 
by diligence he enforced to a great aug- 
mentation and perfection ; for he was an 



fRAGMENTA REGALIA. 26l 

indefatigable reader, whether by sea or 
land, and none of the least observers, both 
of men and the times ; and I am confi- 
dent, that among the second causes of his 
growth, that variance between him and my 
Lord Grey, in his descent into Ireland,* 
was a principal, for it drew them both over 
to the council-table, there to plead their 
cause, where, what advantage he had in 
the cause, I know not, but he had much 
the better in the telling of his tale ; and 
so much, that the Queen and the Lords 
took no slight mark of the man and his 
parts ; for from thence he came to be 
known, and to have access to the Queen 
and the Lords ; and then we are not to 
doubt how such a man would comply and 
learn the way of progression ; and whether 
or no my Lord of Leicester had then cast 



* Lord Grey of Wilton resigned the office of depu- 
ty of Ireland in August 1582, at which time this hearing 
before the council seems to have taken place. The 
cause is believed to have been his preferring Zouch in 
place of Raleigh to the government of Munster. 



262 TRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

in a good word for him to the Queen, * 
which would have done no harm, I do not 
determine- But true it is, he had gotten 
the Queen's ear at a trice, and she began 
to be taken with his elocution, and loved 
to hear his reasons to her demands ; and 
the truth is, she took him for a kind of ora- 
cle, which nettled them all ; yea, those that 
he relied on, began to take this his sudden 
favour for an alarm, and to be sensible of 
their own supplantation, and to project 
his, which made him shortly after sing, 
" Fortune, my foe," -f &c. So that finding 
his favour declining, and falling into a re- 
cess, he undertook a new peregrination, to 
leave that terra injirma of the court for 
that of the wars ; and by declining hirn- 



* See a letter from Raleigh to Leicester, which seems 
to confirm this idea in Cayley's Life of Raleigh, Vol. I. 
p. 3C). 

f This seems to allude to the jealousy of Essex, 
through whose means Raleigh was sent to Ireland in a 
kind of banishment in 1589 ; after which he sailed on 
an expedition against the Spaniards in 1592. 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA, 263 

self, and by absence to expel his and the 
passion of his enemies, which in court was 
a strange device of recovery, but that he 
knew there was some ill office done him, 
that he durst not attempt to mind any 
other ways than by going aside, thereby to 
teach envy a new way of forgetfulness, and 
not so much as to think of him ; howso- 
ever, he had it always in mind never to for- 
get himself, and his device took so well, 
that at his return he came in (as rams 
do by going backward) with the greater 
strength, and so continued to her last, great 
in her grace, and captain of the guard, 
where I must leave him ; but with this ob- 
servation, that though he gained much at 
the court, yet he took it not out of the ex- 
chequer, or merely out of the Queen's 
purse, but by his wit and the help of the 
prerogative ; for the Queen was never pro- 
fuse in the delivering out of her treasure, 
but paid many, and most of her servants, 
part in money, and the rest with grace, 
which as the case stood, was taken for 



264 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

good payment, leaving the arrear of re- 
compense due to their merit, to her great 
successor, who paid them all with advan- 
tage. 






FRAGMENTA REQALIA. 265 



GREVILLE. • 

Sir Foulk Greville, since Lord Brook, 
had no mean place in her favour, neither 
did he hold it for any short term ; for if I 
be not deceived, he had the longest lease, 
and the smoothest time, without rub, of any 
of her favourites ; he came to the court in 
his youth and prime, for that is the time 
or never ; he was a brave gentleman, and 



* Created by Charles L, Lord Brooke. He was de- 
scended from the ancient family of Greville, and born in 
1554. He was early introduced at the court of Eliza- 
beth, by his uncle Robert Greville. He was a professed 
votary of the muses, and extracts from his poems may 
be found in " Ellis's specimens." After a long life of un- 
interrupted prosperity, and enjoying the smiles of three 
successive sovereigns, he was murdered by one of his 
own retainers, whom he had neglected to reward, for a 
life spent in his service, and who, in despair, first stab- 
bed his master, and afterwards himself, 30th September, 
1628. 



266 TRAGMEISTTA REGALIA. 

honourably descended from Willoughby, 
Lord Brook, and admiral to Henry VII. ; 
neither illiterate, for he was, as he would 
often profess, a friend to Sir Philip Sidney ; 
and there are of his now extant, some frag- 
ments of his poem, and of those times, 
which do interest him in the muses ; and 
which shews the Queen's election had ever 
a noble conduct, and it motions more of 
virtue and judgment than of fancy. I find, 
that he neither sought for, or obtained, any 
great place or preferment in court, during 
all the time of his attendance ; neither did 
he need it, for he came thither backed 
with a plentiful fortune, which, as himself 
was wont to say, was the better held toge- 
ther by a single life, wherein he lived and 
died a constant courtier of the ladies. 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 267 



ESSEX. 

My Lord of Essex, as Sir Henry Wotton, 
a gentleman of great parts, and partly of 
his times and retinue, observes, had his in- 
troduction by my Lord of Leicester, who 
had married his mother, a tie of affinity : 
which besides a more urgent obligation 
might have invited his ear to advance him, 
his fortune being then, and through his fa- 
ther's infelicity, grown low. But that the 
son of a Lord, Ferrers of Charley, Viscount 
Hartford, and Earl of Essex, who was of 
the ancient nobility, and formerly in the 
Queen's good grace, could not have a room 
in her favour, without the assistance of 
Leicester, was beyond the rule of her na- 
ture, which, as I have elsewhere taken into 
observation, was ever inclinable to favour 
the nobility. Sure it is, that he no sooner 
appeared in court, but he took with the 



268 PRAGMETS TTA REGALIA. 

Queen and courtiers; and I believe they 
all could not choose, but look through the 
sacrifice of the father on his living son, 
whose image, by the remembrance of for- 
mer passages, was afresh, like the bleeding 
of men murdered, represented to the court, 
and offered up as a subject of compassion 
to all the kingdom.* There was in this 
young Lord, together with a most goodly 
person, a kind of urbanity, or innate cour- 
tesy, which both won the Queen, and too 
much took upon the people, to gaze upon 
the new adopted son of her favour. And 



* It was shrewdly suspected, that Walter Earl of Es- 
sex, father to the favourite, was poisoned by Crampton 
the yeoman of his bottles, and Loyd his secretary, at 
the instigation of Leicester, and to clear the way for his 
wedding the widowed countess. The accusation is thus 
stated in a libel called" Leicester's Ghost:" 

The valiant Earl, whom absent I did wrong, 

In breaking Hymeneus* holy band, 

In Ireland did protract the time too long, 

While some in England ingled under hand. 

And at his coming homeward to this land, 
He died with poison, as they say, infected 
Not without cause, for vengeance I suspected. 



FllAGMENTA REGALIA. 269 

as I go along, it were not amiss to take 
into observation two notable quotations; 
the first was a violent indulgency of the 
Queen (which incident to old age, where it 
encounters with a pleasing and suitable 
object) towards this Lord, all which argued 
a non-perpetuity ; the second was a fault 
in the object of her grace ; my Lord him- 
self, who drew in too fast, like a child 
sucking on an over uberous nurse ; and 
had there been a more decent decorum ob- 
served in both, or either of those, without 
doubt the unity of their affections had 
been more permanent, and not so in and 
out as they were, like an instrument ill 
tuned and lapsing to discord. 

The greater error of the two, though un- 
willingly, I am constrained to impose on 
my Lord of Essex, or rather on his youth, 
and none of the least of his blame on those 
that stood centinels about him, who might 
have advised him better ; but that like 
men intoxicated with hopes, they likewise 
had sucked in with the most, and of their 



270 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

Lord's receipt ; and so like Caesar's, would 
have all or none, a rule quite contrary to 
nature, and the most indulgent parents, 
who, though they may express more affec- 
tion to one in the abundance of bequests, 
yet cannot forget some legacies, just distri- 
butives, and dividends to others of their be- 
getting; and how hateful partiality proves, 
every day's experience tells us, out of which, 
common consideration might have framed 
to their hands, a maxim of more discretion 
for the conduct and management of their 
now graced Lord and master. 

But to omit that of infusion, and to do 
right to truth, my Lord of Essex, even of 
those that truly loved and honoured him, 
was noted for too bold an ingrosser, both 
of fame and favour ; and of this, without 
offence to the living, or treading on the sa- 
cred urn of the dead, I shall present a truth 
and a passage yet in memory. 

My Lord Mountjoy, who was . nother 
child of her favour, being newly come to 
court, and then but Sir Charles Blunt, 



TRAGMENTA REGALIA. 271 

(for my Lord William, his elder brother, 
was then living,) had the good fortune one 
day to run very well a tilt, and the Queen 
therewith was so well pleased, that she 
sent him in token of her favour, a Queen 
at chess of gold richly enamelled, which 
his servants had the next day fastened on 
his arm with a crimson ribbon, which my 
Lord of Essex, as he passed through the 
privy-chamber, espying, with his cloak cast 
under his arm, the better to commend it to 
the view, enquired what it was, and for 
what cause there fixed ; Sir Foulk Greville 
told him, that it was the Queen's favour, 
which the day before, and after the tilting, 
she had sent him ; whereat my Lord of 
Essex, in a kind of emulation, and as 
though he would have limited her favour, 
said, now I perceive every fool must have 
a favour ; this bitter and public affront 
came to Sir Charles Blunt's ear, who sent 
him a challenge, which was accepted by 
my Lord ; and they met near Mary-bone 
park, where my lord was hurt in the thigh 



272 FIIAGMENTA REGALIA. 

and disarmed : the Queen missing the men, 
was very curious to learn the truth ; and 
■when at last it was whispered out, she 
swore by God's death, it was fit that some 
one or other should take him down, and 
teach him better manners, otherwise there 
would be no rule with him : and here I 
note the innition of my Lord's friendship 
with Mountjoy, which the Queen herself 
did then conjure. 

Now for fame, we need not go far ; for 
my Lord of Essex having borne a grudge 
to General Norris, who had, unwittingly, 
offered to undertake the action of Britain 
with fewer men than my Lord had before 
demanded ; oh his return with victory, and 
a glorious report of his valour, he was then 
thought the only man for the Irish war, 
wherein my Lord of Essex so wrought, by 
despising the number and quality of rebels, 
that Norris was sent over with a scanted 
force, joined with the relics of the veteran 
troops of Britain, of set purpose, as it 
fell out, to ruin Norris, and the Lord Bur- 



1RAGMENTA REGALIA. 2?5 

rows, by my Lord's procurement, sent at 
his heels, and to command in chief; and 
to confine Norris only to his government 
at Munster, which brake the great heart of 
the general, to see himself undervalued 
and undermined by my Lord and Burrows, 
which was, as the proverb speaks it, imber- 
bes docere senes. 

My Lord Burrows, in the beginning of 
his persecution, died ; whereupon the Queen 
was fully bent to have sent over Mount- 
joy, which my Lord of Essex utterly dis- 
liked, and opposed with many reasons, and 
by arguments of contempt against Mount- 
joy, his then professed friend and familiar ; 
so predominant were his words, to reap the 
honour of closing up that war and all other. 

Now the way being opened and plained 
by his own workmanship, and so handled, 
that none durst appear to stand for the 
place ; at last, with much ado, he obtain- 
ed his own ends, and withal his fatal de- 
struction, leaving the Queen and the court, 



274 ERAGMENTA REGALIA. 

where he stood firm and impregnable in 
her grace, to men that long hath sought 
and watched their times to give him the 
trip, and could never find any opportunity, 
but this of his absence, and of his own 
creation ; and these are the true observa- 
tions of his appetite and inclinations, which 
were not of any true proportion, but car- 
ried and transported with an over desire 
and thirstiness after fame, and that deceit- 
ful fame of popularity. And to help on 
his catastrophe, I observe likewise two 
sorts of people that had a hand in his fall ; 
the first was the soldiery, which all flocked 
unto him, as foretelling a mortality, and are 
commonly of blunt and too rough coun- 
cils, and many times dissonant from the 
time of the court and the state ; the other 
sort were of his family, his servants, and 
his own creatures, such as were bound by 
the rules of safety and obligations of fide- 
lity, to have looked better to the steering 
of that boat, wherein they themselves were 
carried, and not have suffered it to float 

12 



ERAGMENTA REGALIA. 275 

and run on ground, with those empty sails 
of fame and tumour of popular applause; 
methinks one honest man or other, that 
had but the office of brushing his clothes, 
might have whispered in his ear," My Lord, 
look to it, this multitude that follows you, 
will either devour you, or undo you ; strive 
not to rule, and over-rule all, for it will 
cost hot water, and it will procure envy, 
and if needs your genius must have it so, 
let the court and the Queen's presence bo 
your station :" but, as I have said, they had 
sucked too much of their Lord's milk ; and 
instead of withdrawing, they blew the coals 
of his ambition, and infused into him too 
much of the spirit of glory : yea, and mix- 
ed the goodness of his nature with a touch 
of revenge, which is ever accompanied with 
a destiny of the same fate ; and of this 
number there were some of insufferable na- 
tures about him, that towards his last gave 
desperate advice, such as his integrity ab- 
horred, and his fidelity forbade ; amongst 
whom, Sir Henry Wotton notes, without 



2?6 TRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

injury, his Secretary Cuff, a vile man, and 
of a perverse nature. I could also name 
others, that when he was in the right course 
of recovery, and settling to moderation, 
would not suffer a recess in him, but stir- 
red up the dregs of those rude humours, 
which by time and his affliction, out of his 
own judgment, he sought to repose, or to 
give them all a vomit. And thus I con- 
clude this noble Lord, as a mixture be- 
tween prosperity and adversity, once the 
child of his great mistress's favour, but the 
son of Bellona. 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 277 



BUCKHURST.* 

My Lord of Buckhurst was of the noble 
house of the Sackvilles, and of the Queen's 
consanguinity. His father was Sir Richard 
Sackville, or, as the people then called him, 
Fill-sack, by reason of his great wealth, 
and the vast patrimony which he left to 
this his son, whereof he spent in his youth 
the best part, until the Queen, by her fre- 
quent admonitions, diverted the torrent of 
his profusion. He was a very fine gentle- 
man of person and endowments, both of 
art and nature, both without measure mag- 
nificent, till on the turn of his humour, -j- 

# Thomas Sackville, Baron of Buckhurst, Earl of 
Dorset, and Lord High-Treasurer of England. He was 
a beautiful poet, as is evident from his share of the In- 
duction to the Mirror for Magistrates, and no less able 
a statesman. 

f His conversion was owing, it is said, to the follow- 
ing incident: Happening, when he began to feel his 



278 FRAGMEISTTA REGALIA. 

and the allay that his years and good 
counsels had wrought upon those immode- 
rate courses of his youth, and that height 
of spirit inherent to his house. And then 
did the Queen, as a most judicious and in- 
dulgent Prince, when she saw the man 
grow stayed and settled, give him her as- 
sistance, and advanced him to the trea- 
surership, where he made amends to his 
house for his misspent time, both in the in- 
creasement of estate and honour which 
the Queen conferred on him, together with 
the opportunity to remake himself, and 
thereby to shew that this was a child that 
should have a share in her grace, and a 
taste of her bounty. They much commend 
his elocution, but more the excellency of 
his pen ; for he was a scholer, and a per- 

fortune embarrassed, to wait on an alderman of London, 
who bad made great advantages by purchasing from 
him, he was made to wait so long ere he could see the 
man of money, that his heart revolted at subjection to 
such incivility; and to prevent being in future exposed 
to it, he became a frugal improver of his remaining pro- 
perty. Fullers Worthies, 



PRAGMENTA REGALIA. 279 

son of a quick dispatch, (faculties that yet 
run in the blood,) and they say of him, 
that his secretaries did little for him by 
the way of inditement, wherein they could 
seldom please him, he was so facete and 
choice in his phrase and style : and for his 
dispatches, and the content he gave to 
suitors, he had a decorum seldom since put 
in practice ; for he had of his attendants 
that took into roll the names of all suitors, 
with the date of their first addresses, and 
these in their order had hearing ; so that a 
fresh man could not leap over his head, 
that was of a more ancient edition, except 
in the urgent affairs of state. I find not 
that he was any ways ensnared in the fac- 
tions of the court, which were all his times 
strong, and in every man's note ; the How- 
ards and theCecills of the one part, my Lord 
ofEssex,&c. on the other part; for he held the 
staff of the treasury fast in his hand, which 
once in the year made them all beholding 
to him ; and the truth is, as he was a wise 
man, and a stout, he had no reason to be 



280 ERAGMENTA REGALIA, 

a partaker ; for he stood sure in blood and 
in grace, and was wholly intentive to the 
Queen's service ; and such were his abili- 
ties, that she received assiduous proofs of 
his sufficiency ; and it hath been thought, 
that she might have more cunning instru- 
ments, but none of a more strong judg- 
ment and confidence in his ways, which 
are symptoms of magnanimity and fidelity, 
whereunto methinks this motto hath some 
kind of reference, aut nunquam tentes aut 
perjice ; as though he would have charac- 
tered in a word the genius of his house, or 
expressed somewhat of an higher inclination 
than lay within his compass. That he was 
a courtier, is apparent, for he stood always 
in her eye and favour. 



TRAGMENTA REGALIA. 281 



LORD MOUNTJOY. 

My Lord Mountjoy was of the ancient 
nobility, but utterly deceived in the sup- 
port thereof; Patrimony, through his grand- 
father's excess in the action of Bullen, his 
father's vanity in the search of the philoso- 
phers-stone, and his brothers untimely pro- 
digalities, * all which seemed, by a joint 
conspiracy, to ruin the house, and altoge- 
ther to annihilate it. 

As he came from Oxford, he took the In- 
ner-Temple in his way to court ; whither no 
sooner came, but, without asking, he had 



# u In his childhood, when his parents would have 
his picture, he chose to be drawn with a trowel in his 
hand, and this motto, Ad recedificandam antiquum Do- 
mum. For this noble and ancient barony was decayed, 
not so much by his progenitors prodigality, as his fa- 
ther's obstinate addiction to the study and practice of 
alchemy, by which he so long laboured to increase his 
revenues, till he had almost fully consumed them." 
Fy tie's Morrison's Journal of Tyrone's Rebellion. 



282 ERAGMENTA REGALIA. 

a pretty strange kind of admission, which 
I have heard from a discreet man of his 
own, and much more of the secrets of those 
times. He was then much about twenty 
years of age, of a brown hair, a sweet face, 
a most neat composure, and tall in his per- 
son.* The Queen was then at Whitehall 
and at dinner, whither he came to see the 
fashion of the court ; the Queen had soon 
found him out, and, with a kind of an af- 
fected frown, asked the Lady Carver what 
he was ; she answered she knew him not, 
insomuch as an inquiry was made from one 
to another who he might be, till at length 
it was told the Queen, he was brother to 
the Lord William Mountjoy. This inquisi- 



* Morrison describes him as tall, and of very comely 
proportion, his complexion fair, though his hair was al- 
most black, " his forehead broad and high, his eyes great, 
black, and lovely, his nose somewhat low and short, and 
a little blunt in the end, his chin round, his cheeks full, 
round, and ruddy, his countenance chearful, and as ami- 
able as ever I beheld of any man." Morrison's Journal. 
This was a picture to suit the taste of the t( Maiden 
Queen," a distinguished connoisseur in male beauty. 



tfRAGMElSTTA REGALIA. 283 

tion, with the eye of majesty fixed upon him, 
as she was wont to do, and to daunt men she 
knew not, stirred the blood of this young 
gentleman, insomuch, as his colour came 
and went, which the Queen observing, cal- 
led him unto her, and gave him her hand to 
kiss, encouraging him with gracious words 
and new looks ; and so diverting her speech 
to the lords and ladies, she said, that she no 
sooner observed him, but that she knew there 
was in him some noble blood, with some 
other expressions of pity towards his house ; 
and then again demanding his name, she 
said, fail you not to come to the court, and 
I will bethink myself how to do you good : 
and this was his inlet, and the beginnings 
of his grace ; where it falls into considera- 
tion, that though he wanted not wit and 
courage, for he had very fine attractions, 
and being a good piece of a scholar, yet 
were they accompanied with the retrac- 
tives of bashful ness, and a natural modesty, 
which, as the tone of his house, and the 
ebb of his fortune then stood, might have 



284) TRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

hindered his progression, had they not been 
reinforced by the infusion of sovereign fa- 
vour, and the Queen's gracious invitation. 
And that it may appear how low he was, 
and how much that heretic necessity will 
work in the dejection of good spirits, I can 
deliver it with assurance, that his exhibi- 
tion was very scant until his brother died, 
which was shortly after his admission to 
the court; and then was it no more than a 
thousand marks per annum, wherewith he 
lived plentifully in a fine way and garb, 
and without any great sustentation during 
all her times ; and as there was in his na- 
ture a kind of backwardness which did 
not befriend him, nor suit with the mo- 
tion of the court, so there was in him an 
inclination to arms, with a humour of tra- 
velling and gadding abroad, which had 
not some wise men about him laboured to 
remove, and the Queen herself laid in her 
commands, he would, out of his natural 
propension, have marred his own market ; 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 285 

for as he was grown b} r reading, whereunto 
he was much addicted, to the theory of a 
soldier, so was he strongly invited by his 
genius to the acquaintance of the practice 
of the war, which were the causes of his 
excursions ; for he had a company in the 
Low-Countries, from whence he came over 
with a noble acceptance of the Queen ; but 
somewhat restless, in honourable thoughts 
he exposed himself again and again, and 
would press the Queen with the pretences 
of visiting his company so often, that at 
length he had a flat denial ; and yet he 
stole over with Sir John Norris into the ac- 
tion of Brittany, which was then a hot and 
active war, whom he would always call his 
father, honouring him above all men, and 
ever bewailing his end ; so contrary he was 
in his esteem and valuation of this great 
commander to that of his friend my Lord 
of Essex ; till at last the Queen began to 
take his decessions for contempts, and con- 
fined his residence to the court and her own 



286 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

presence ; and upon my Lord of Essex's 
fall, so confident she was in her own prince- 
ly judgment and opinion she had conceived 
of his worth and conduct, that she would 
have this noble gentleman, and none other, 
to finish and bring the Irish war to a pro- 
pitious end : for it was a prophetical speech 
of her own, that it would be his fortune 
and his honour to cut the thread of that 
fatal rebellion, and to bring her in peace 
to the grave ; where she was not deceived, 
for he atchieved it, but with much pains 
and carefulness, and not without the fears 
and many jealousies of the court and 
times, wherewith the Queen's age, and the 
malignity of her setting times were replete. 
And so I come to his dear friend in court, 
Mr Secretary Cecill, whom in his long ab- 
sence from court he adored as his saint, 
and courted for his only Mecenas, both be- 
fore and after his departure from court, 
and during all the times of his command 
in Ireland ; well knowing that it lay in his 



TRAGMENTA REGALIA. 287 

power, and by a word of his mouth, to 
make or mar him. * 



# Lord Mountjoy was sent to Ireland as lord-deputy 
in 1599, upon the departure of Essex. He had the ho- 
nour to terminate the long war with Tyrone, which had 
broke the heart of Norris, and was the remote cause of 
the fall and death of Essex. Morrison has preserved in 
his Journal an account of that war, and some part of the 
correspondence between the lord-deputy and Cecill. 

Lord Mountjoy returned to England in 1605, bring- 
ing with him the vanquished Tyrone in a sort of tri- 
umph. He received many favours from James, who had 
succeeded Elizabeth during his absence, and was finally 
created Earl of Devonshire. But he did not long enjoy 
his new honours, as he died of an ardent fever, April 
1606. 



288 FRAGMENTA REGALIA, 



CECILL. 

Sir Robert Cecill, since Earl of Salis- 
bury, was the son of the Lord Burleigh, 
and the inheritor of his wisdom, and by 
degrees successor of his places and fa- 
vours, though not of his lands, for he had 
Sir Thomas Cecill his elder brother, since 
created Earl of Exeter : he was first secre- 
tary of state, then master of the wards, and 
in the last of her reign came to be lord- 
treasurer ; all which were the steps of his 
father's greatness, and of the honour he left 
to his house. For his person he was not 
much beholding to nature, though some- 
what for his face, which was the best part 
of his outside ; but for his inside, it may be 
said, and without solecism, that he was his 
fathers own son, and a pregnant proficient 
in all discipline of state. He was a cour- 
tier from his cradle, which might have 
11 



TltAGMENTA REGALIA. 289 

made him betimes, yet at the age of twen- 
ty and upwards, he was much short of his 
after proof, but exposed, and by change of 
climate, he soon made show what he was, 
and would be. He lived in those times 
wherein the Queen had most need and use 
of men of weight, and amongst able ones, 
this was a chief, as having his sufficiency 
from his instructions that begat him, the 
tutorship of the times and court, which 
were then the academies of art and cun- 
ning ; for such was the Queen's condition 
from the tenth or twelfth of her reign, that 
she had the happiness to stand up, where- 
of there is a former intimation, though en- 
vironed with more enemies, and assaulted 
with more dangerous practices, than any 
Prince of her times, and of many ages be- 
fore ; neither must we in this her preser- 
vation attribute too much to human poli- 
cies; for that God, io his omnipotent pro- 
vidence, had not only ordained those se- 
condary means as instruments of the work, 

T 



290 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

but by an evident manifestation, that the 
same work which she acted, was a well 
pleasing service of his own, out of a pecu- 
liar care, had decreed the protection of the 
work-mistress, and thereunto added his 
abundant blessing upon all, and whatso- 
ever she undertook ; which is an observa- 
tion of satisfaction to myself that she was 
in the right, though to others now breath- 
ing under the same form and frame of her 
government, it may not seem an animad- 
version of any worth ; but I leave them to 
the peril of their own folly. And so again 
to this great master of state, and the staff 
of the Queen's declining age, who, though 
his little crooked person could not promise 
any great supportation, yet it carried there- 
on a head and a head-piece of a vast con- 
tent ; and therein it seems nature was so 
diligent to complete one, and the best part 
about him, as that to the perfection of his 
memory and intellectuals, she took care 
also of his senses, and to put him in linceos 
ocidos, or to pleasure him the more, bor- 
11 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 291 

rowed of Argus, so to give unto him a pro- 
spective sight, and for the rest of his sensi- 
tive virtues, his predecessor Walsingham had 
left him a receipt to smell out what was done 
in the conclave ; and his good old father 
was so well seen in the mathematics, as 
that he could tell you throughout all Spain, 
every part, every ship with their burdens, 
whither bound with preparation, what im- 
pediments for diversion, of enterprises, 
councils, and resolutions ; and that we may 
see, as in a little map, how docible this lit- 
tle man was, * I will present a taste of his 
abilities. My Lord of Devonshire, -f- upon 
the certainty the Spaniard would invade 



# Cecill, Earl of Salisbury, was hunch-backed and 
deformed. King James, in his childish jargon, used to 
call him his little beagle, from the acuteness with which 
he could run the scent of policy. 

*j- i. e. Lord Mountjoy, whom Naunton here calls by his 
last and highest title, Earl of Devonshire. The letter from 
Cecill was probabty dated in 1600 ; for in September 
1601, according to his prediction, the Spaniards actually 
invaded Ireland, and garrisoned Kinsale, agreeable to 
the intelligence which Cecill had procured. 



292 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

Ireland with a strong army, had written 
very earnestly to the Queen and the coun- 
cil, for such supplies to be timely sent 
over, that might enable him to march up 
to the Spaniard if he did land, and follow 
on his prosecution against the rebels. Sir 
Robert Cecill, besides the general dispatch 
of the council, as he often did, wrote this 
in private, for these two began then to love 
dearly. 

" My Lord, out of the abundance of my 
affection, and the care I have of your well 
doing, I must in private put you out of 
doubt, for of fear I know you cannot be 
otherwise than in the way of honour, that 
the Spaniard will not come unto you this 
year, for I have it from my own, what pre- 
parations are in all his parts, and what he 
can do ; for be confident, he beareth up a 
reputation by seeming to embrace more 
than he can gripe : but the next year, be 
assured, he will cast over unto you some 
forlorn hopes, which how they may be re- 
inforced beyond his present ability, and his 



I'RAGMENTA REGALIA. 293 

first intention, I cannot, as yet, make any 
certain judgment ; but I believe out of my 
intelligence, that you may expect their 
landing in Munster, and the more to dis- 
tract you in several places, as at King's- 
sail, Beer-haven, Baltimore, where you may 
be sure, coming from sea, they will first 
fortify and learn the strength of the rebels 
before they dare take the field; howsoever, 
as I know you will not, lessen not your 
care, neither your defences, and whatsoever 
lies within my power to do you and the 
public service, rest thereof assured." 

And to this I w r ould add much more ; 
but it may, as it is, suffice to present 
much, as his abilities in the pen, that he 
was his crafts master in foreign intelli- 
gence ; and for domestic affairs, as he was 
one of those that sat at the stern to the 
last of the Queen, so was he none of the 
least in skill, and in the true use of the 
compass ; and so I shall only vindicate the 
scandal of his death, and conclude him, 
for he departed at Saint Margarets, near 



294 TRAGMENTA 11EGAXIA. 

Marlborough, in his return from the bath, 
as my Lord Viscount Cranborn, my Lord 
Clifford, his son, and son-in-law, myself, 
and many more can witness ; but that the 
day before he swooned in the way, was ta- 
ken out of the litter, and laid into his 
coach, was a truth, out of which that false- 
hood, concerning the manner of his death, 
had its derivation, though nothing to the 
purpose, or to the prejudice of his worth. * 



# Weldon, Osborne, and other scandalous authors, 
have averred, that the Earl of Salisbury died of the 
morbus pediculosuS; and expired in the open air on Salisbury 
plain. But in truth he died in Mr Daniel's house, near 
Marlborough. His chaplain, Dr Bowles, has left a mi- 
nute account of his illness and death, printed in Peck's 
Desiderata Curiosa, Vol. I. 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 295 



VERE.* 

Sir Francis Vere was of the ancient and 
the most noble extract of the Earls of Ox- 
ford ; and it may be a question, whether the 
nobility of his house, or the honour of his 
achievements, might most commend him, 
but that we have an authentic rule to de- 
cide the doubt: 

Nam genvs et proavos, et qua nonfecimus ipsi, 
Vix ea nostra voco. 

For though he were an honourable slip 
of that ancient tree of nobility, which 



* Sir Francis Vere, nephew of John Vere, fifteenth 
Earl of Oxford, was an English commander in service 
of the States of Holland ; Elizabeth herself pitched up- 
on him as the fittest person to be governor of Brill, 
when it was mortgaged to the Queen. He was greatly 
•distinguished by his exploits in the Low-Country wars. 



296 TRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

was no disadvantage to his virtue, yet he 
brought more glory to the name of Vere, 
than he took of blood from the family. He 
was amongst the Queen's sword-men, infe- 
rior to none, but superior to many, of 
whom it may be said, to speak much of 
him, were the way to leave out something 
that might add to his praise, and to forget 
more that could add to his honour. I find 
not that he came much to the court, for 
he lived almost perpetually in the camp ; 
but when he did, no man had more of the 
Queen's favour, and none less envied, for 
he seldom troubled it with the jealousy 
and alarms of supplantation, his way was 
another sort of undermining ; they report 
that the Queen, as she loved martial men, 
would court this gentleman, as soon as he 
appeared in her presence, and surely he 
was a soldier of great worth, and com- 
manded thirty years in the service of the 
states, and twenty years over the English 
in chief, as the Queen's general, and he 
that had seen the battle of Newport, might 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 297 

there best have taken him, and his noble 
brother, my Lord of Tilbury, to the life. * 



* Sir Horatio Vere, created Lord Tilbury. King 
James sent him with the scanty auxiliary forces, which 
he destined to the assistance of his son-in-law, the Elec- 
tor Palatine ; indeed he held him, Sir Horatio, in such 
high respect, that, forgetting his rank, says Camden, 
he remained uncovered before him. 

The battle of Newport was a desperate action, fought 
in 1600 between Count Maurice, who besieged that 
place, and the Archduke Albert, who advanced to re- 
lieve it. The brunt of the fight fell upon the English, 
commanded by Sir Francis Vere, who were severely 
handled. Out of 1500, there were 800 killed and wound- 
ed, eight captains were killed, and but two commanders 
escaped unhurt. Sir Francis Vere, who had a horse shot 
under him, and his brother Horatio, distinguished them- 
selves in retrieving the day when it was almost lost. 



298 fKAGMENTA REGALIA, 



WORCESTER. * 

My Lord of Worcester, I have here put 
last, but not least in the Queen's favour ; 
he was of the ancient and noble blood of 
the Bewfords, and of her grandfather's line, 
by the mother, which the Queen could ne- 
ver forget, especially where there was a 
concurrency of old blood with fidelity, a 
mixture which ever sorted with the Queen's 
nature ; and though there might appear 
something in this house, which might avert 
her grace, though not to speak of my Lord 
himself, but with due reverence and ho- 



* Edward Beaufort, fourth Earl of Worcester. He 
seems to have been a mere courtier. In 1591, he was 
sent on an embassy to Scotland, and in the 43d of 
Queen Elizabeth, was created master of the horse, 
which office he resigned in the 13th year of her succes- 
sor's reign ; being then made lord privy-seal, an office 
better suiting his years. This last of the " Queen's old 
courtiers," died at a good old age, 3d March, 1627-8. 



FRAGMENTA IlEGALIA. %99 

nour, I mean contrariety or suspicion in re- 
ligion ; yet the Queen ever respected this 
house, and principally this noble Lord, 
whom she first made master of the horse, 
and then admitted of her council of state ; 
in his youth, part whereof he spent before 
he came to reside at court, he was a very 
fine gentleman, and the best horseman and 
tilter of the times, which were then the 
manlike and noble recreations of the court, 
and such as took up the applause of men, 
as well as the praise and commendation of 
ladies ; and when years had abated these 
exercises of honour, he grew then to be a 
faithful and profound counsellor ; and as I 
have placed him last, so w r as he the last 
liver of all the servants of her favour, and 
had the honour to see his renowned mis- 
tress, and all of them laid in the places of 
their rest ; and for himself, after a life of a 
very noble and remarkable reputation, he 
died rich, and in a peaceable old age ; a 
fate, that I make the last, and none of 
the slightest observations, which befel not 



500 FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 

many of the rest ; for they expired like un- 
to lights blown out, with the snuff stink- 
ing, not commendably extinguished, and 
with offence to the standers by. And thus 
have I delivered up this my poor essay, a 
little draught of this great Princess and her 
times, with the servants of her state and fa- 
vour ; I cannot say I have finished it, for I 
know how defective and imperfect it is, as 
limbed only in the original nature, not 
without the active blemishes, and so left it 
as a task fitter for remote times, and the 
sallies of some bolder pencil to correct that 
which is amiss, and draw the rest up to life ; 
as for me to have endeavoured it, I took it 
to consideration how easily I might have 
dashed in too much of the strain of pollu- 
tion, and thereby have defaced that little 
which is done ; for I profess I have taken 
care so to master my pen, that I might not, 
ex animo, or of set purpose, discolour truth, 
or any of the parts thereof, otherwise than 
in concealment. Happily there are some 
which will not approve of this modesty, 



FRAGMENTA REGALIA. 301 

but will censure me for pusillanimity, and 
with great cunning artists attempt to draw 
their line further out at large, and upon 
this of mine, which may, with somewhat 
more ease, be effected, for that the frame 
is ready made to their hands, and then 
happily I could draw one in the midst of 
theirs, but that modesty in me forbids the 
defacements of men departed, whose pos- 
terity yet remaining, enjoys the merit of 
their virtues, and do still live in their ho- 
nour : and I had rather incur the censure 
of abruption, than to be conscious, and ta- 
ken in the manner of sinning by eruption, 
and of trampling on the graves of persons 
at rest, which living, we durst not look in 
the face, nor make our addresses to them, 
otherwise than wdth due regards to their 
honours, and renown to their virtues. 

FINIS. 



Edinburgh : 
Printed by James Ballaiitj ne & Co. 



LBAp 



/ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




010 092 392 



gSnBBl 

flOMMW 



^m 






V 



■ -Sth 



i ■ 



